Memories of Growing Up in Indiana

[selfAdjoint]

Ah, Indiana. Lived there for years; high school and college there. Maximally insular. The legislature once debated seriously a proposal to define pi as 3 1/6.

 

[Tony11235]

Ah, Indiana. Lived there for years; high school and college there. Maximally insular. The legislature once debated seriously a proposal to define pi as 3 1/6.

I hope you're not serious.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

high school and college there

Should this concern us? :uhh:

 

[selfAdjoint]

Ivan, I was just giving evidence to support my ability to comment on the Hoosier character.

 

[Rach3]

Ah, Indiana. Lived there for years; high school and college there. Maximally insular. The legislature once debated seriously a proposal to define pi as 3 1/6.

I hope you're not serious.

It was approved, 67-0:
http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~alopez-o/math-faq/mathtext/node18.html

HOUSE BILL NO. 246

"A bill for an act introducing a new mathematical truth and offered as a contribution to education to be used only by the State of Indiana free of cost by paying any royalties whatever on the same, provided it is accepted and adopted by the official action of the legislature of 1897.

"Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana: It has been found that a circular area is to the square on a line equal to the quadrant of the circumference, as the area of an equilateral rectangle is to the square on one side. The diameter employed as the linear unit according to the present rule in computing the circle's area is entirely wrong, as it represents the circles area one and one-fifths times the area of a square whose perimeter is equal to the circumference of the circle. This is because one-fifth of the diameter fils to be represented four times in the circle's circumference. For example: if we multiply the perimeter of a square by one-fourth of any line one-fifth greater than one side, we can, in like manner make the square's area to appear one fifth greater than the fact, as is done by taking the diameter for the linear unit instead of the quadrant of the circle's circumference.

In his article, he writes (according to Edington):

"An ex-teacher from the eastern part of the state was saying: 'The case is perfectly simple. If we pass this bill which establishes a new and correct value for pi , the author offers to our state without cost the use of his discovery and its free publication in our school textbooks, while everyone else must pay him a royalty.'"

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Ivan, I was just giving evidence to support my ability to comment on the Hoosier character.

I was just teasing you about being a Hoosier.

 

[selfAdjoint]

I was just teasing you about being a Hoosier.

Oy, I hope I'm not a Hoosier!

One good Hoosier I know is Dick Lugar, the Senator. I was in HS with him. He is pretty sharp, and his effort (which the administration pretty much ignores) to control nuclear material left around by the collapse of the Soviet Union, is one of the worthiest causes I can imagine.

 

[Tony11235]

Ok I have to admit, I'm from Indianapolis. But I've never heard of this crap,
http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~alopez-o/math-faq/mathtext/node18.html, until now.

 

[selfAdjoint]

My math professor at Butler U, Harry Crull of honored memory, taught us about that bill in the state legislature, he had a copy of the proceedings for us to peruse.

 

[Chronos]

So, science will forever be subjected to the "Hoosier" test?

 

[selfAdjoint]

Hoosiers, like cockroaches, will survive the singularity!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

-Split from another thread-

 

[Gelsamel Epsilon]

I want to see their buildings.

 

[Manchot]

Just an interesting tidbit of information: in St. Louis, the word "hoosier" has a very different connotation to it, and is basically a synonym for "hick" or "redneck." Thus, when I hear the word, that's what I think of.

 

[gravenewworld]

I did a presentation on the classic geometry problems that are unsolvable and used that article in it. I believe some nutjob convinced the indiana senate to change the value of pi so that he could "solve" the impossible like doubling the volume of a cube or trisecting an angle with just a straight edge and compass.

 

[MeJennifer]

To avoid these situations from occurring in the future we could ask the legislature to once and for have a new law that simply writes out the complete number.

 

[selfAdjoint]

I did a presentation on the classic geometry problems that are unsolvable and used that article in it. I believe some nutjob convinced the indiana senate to change the value of pi so that he could "solve" the impossible like doubling the volume of a cube or trisecting an angle with just a straight edge and compass.

As I heard the story from Professor Crull, one of the senators was a rich man who owned a race track, and got his idea after he measured its circumference and got a different ratio than pi. He then persuaded a committee to consider his theory.

 

[Chronos]

I infer that suggests Indiana is the place to be for aspiring politicians.