Alabama Changes the Value of Pi

[Charbok]

The following is an excerpt from New Mexicans for Science and Reason newsletter:

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- NASA engineers and mathematicians in this high-tech city are stunned and infuriated after the Alabama state legislature narrowly passed a law yesterday redefining pi, a mathematical constant used in the aerospace industry. The bill to change the value of pi to exactly three was introduced without fanfare by Leonard Lee Lawson (R, Crossville), and rapidly gained support after a letter-writing campaign by members of the Solomon Society, a traditional values group. Governor Guy Hunt says he will sign it into law on Wednesday.

The law took the state's engineering community by surprise. "It would have been nice if they had consulted with someone who actually uses pi," said Marshall Bergman, a manager at the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. According to Bergman, pi is a Greek letter that signifies the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It is often used by engineers to calculate missile trajectories.

Prof. Kim Johanson, a mathematician from University of Alabama, said that pi is a universal constant, and cannot arbitrarily be changed by lawmakers. Johanson explained that pi is an irrational number, which means that it has an infinite number of digits after the decimal point and can never be known exactly. Nevertheless, she said, pi is precisely defined by mathematics to be "3.14159, plus as many more digits as you have time to calculate".

"I think that it is the mathematicians that are being irrational, and it is time for them to admit it," said Lawson. "The Bible very clearly says in I Kings 7:23 that the altar font of Solomon's Temple was ten cubits across and thirty cubits in diameter, and that it was round in compass."

Lawson called into question the usefulness of any number that cannot be calculated exactly, and suggested that never knowing the exact answer could harm students' self-esteem. "We need to return to some absolutes in our society," he said, "the Bible does not say that the font was thirty-something cubits. Plain reading says thirty cubits. Period."

Scan of the Original Article

This is f***ing ridiculous. It'll probably be undone, but still! That's ridiculous!

[Larvinator]

When insane fundamentalism attacks...

Not like this'll do anything -- no engineer worth his money is gonna conform to this and risk all his designs falling apart -- but it amazes me how blind some people can be.

Maybe we can compromise. God rounded down?

[Fire Away]

How many more kinks does Alabama need in its education system?

EDIT: I can't believe I fell for that.

DAMN YOU ;_;

[scubasteveE]

*FACEPALM*
First question came to mind is: why? Because in the Bible, Samson used 3 instead? Here is a clear example of someone taking something from the Bible and interpreting it in their on way. I mean how long has pi been 3.14.....? Why change it? We have been using it so long and it works fine. I mean there better things to fight for then this. Oh wait, this must have been the 11th commandment "Thou shall PI equals 3." Dude really, WTF?

Originally Posted by Fire Away

How many more kinks does Alabama need in its education system?

EDIT: I can't believe I fell for that.

DAMN YOU ;_;

*looks at location*
I never did notice that your from VA. I'm stating that because I'm from VA too, and that I'm glad that someone on pe2k lives there too :P

[Fire Away]

Originally Posted by Scuba Stevee

*looks at location*
I never did notice that your from VA. I'm stating that because I'm from VA too, and that I'm glad that someone on pe2k lives there too :P

Oops, I forgot to change that. D:

[Ah Beng I the Pikabeng]

This looks more like an April Fool's joke than anything else...

Back then, measurements weren't as precise or accurate. So Solomon's temple was most likely slightly less than 10 cubits and slightly more than 30 cubits, but that's what they rounded to anyway. Either that or the "cubits" were different, like they usually were back then.

Wait. Thirty cubits in diameter, not in circumference. There's something wrong here...

[Lord Fedora]

Originally Posted by Ah Beng I the Pikabeng

This looks more like an April Fool's joke than anything else...

Back then, measurements weren't as precise or accurate. So Solomon's temple was most likely slightly less than 10 cubits and slightly more than 30 cubits, but that's what they rounded to anyway. Either that or the "cubits" were different, like they usually were back then.

Wait. Thirty cubits in diameter, not in circumference. There's something wrong here...

Pikabeng speaks the truth, pi is not used to find the diameter of a circle. Only circumfrence and area. Ergo, it doesn't matter.

And the point of numbers like pi and e that have no end is for precision. 3x5=15. pix5=18.85.

[skiboydoggy]

-waits for 1/4/09 declaration-
That's the only way to explain the stupidity.

Oh wait, American fundamentalist lawmakers. It might just be true after all.

[SiberianTiger]

I LoL'D at the people posting...

~Isaiah

[Ah Beng I the Pikabeng]

Originally Posted by Khajmer

Pikabeng speaks the truth, pi is not used to find the diameter of a circle. Only circumfrence and area. Ergo, it doesn't matter.

And the point of numbers like pi and e that have no end is for precision. 3x5=15. pix5=18.85.

I think you meant 6π. And even then, it's 18.84955592... etc etc etc.

But yeah, precision is now getting more important nowadays.

EDIT: π is still used to find the diameter if you know only the circumference.

But still, there's still something wrong there.

Originally Posted by skiboydoggy

-waits for 1/4/09 declaration-
That's the only way to explain the stupidity.

Oh wait, American fundamentalist lawmakers. It might just be true after all.

Lol. XD

Betcha it's false though.


Hmm... wait... This looks like a really old joke...

[MaskedJackal]

Just another reason for the radical left to whine and cry about religion.

[Ah Beng I the Pikabeng]

Originally Posted by Lord Lucario

Just another reason for the radical left to whine and cry about religion.

Tell me again what this has to do with religion?

[Charbok]

Originally Posted by Lord Lucario

Just another reason for the radical left to whine and cry about religion.

Nobody is whining about religion. They (meaning republicans, democrats, centrists, the religious, atheists) are whining at the fact that this is RIDICULOUS.
Are you going to sit here and tell me that it isn't ridiculous and that you think it should be ignored because it doesn't matter?

[Larvinator]

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/a.../comments/862/

I feel stupid. :<

[Ah Beng I the Pikabeng]

Originally Posted by Larvinator

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/a.../comments/862/

I feel stupid. :<

Now you know. This hoax was from 11 years ago. <_<