Re: Pi

I just knew David would put his oar in, and I hope he understands my English
idiom!

I am cynical about stories like pi as there are so many urban legends
masquerading as history of science. Last week I had to gently squash a
student in church history who said many in the past thought God put fossils
in the rocks to deceive people. Vidler who wrote the worst church history
ever said that Gosse said that which is bunkum. He then cited Inherit the
Wind and was taken aback when I said it was fiction! A few well-placed
snippets about the trial sufficed.

I am afraid I simply dont accept most historical stories unless I can
substantiate them or read them in scholars whose work I find reliable. I am
afraid that is what 30 years of chasing us the history of science and
religion has done to me!!

It all goes back to Andrew White's work of fiction A History of the Warfare
of Science with Theology. Also now we are getting lots of popular history of
science, much of a fictitious nature.

Not totally cynical

Michael

----- Original Message -----
From: "D. F. Siemens, Jr." <dfsiemensjr@juno.com>
To: <lhaarsma@calvin.edu>
Cc: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 9:25 PM
Subject: Re: Pi

>
> On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 12:52:11 -0500 (EST) Loren Haarsma
> <lhaarsma@calvin.edu> writes:
> >
> >
> > On Tue, 23 Nov 2004, Wayne Shelton wrote:
> >
> > > Can someone recall the letter from few months
> > > back discussing Mississippi's law setting pi
> > > equal to three.
> >
> > I don't know about a specific letter, but there is a tradition
> > going
> > back at least six years of hoax letters, circulating around the
> > internet,
> > about some state legislature or other doing this. See for example:
> > http://www.snopes.com/religion/pi.htm
> >
> > Back in 1897, a pseudo-mathematician did get some Indiana
> > legislators to
> > consider legislating several _other_ rational values for pi (not
> > 3.0, and
> > none of it motivated by biblical passages). The bill never passed.
> > See
> > for example:
> > http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_341.html
> > http://tafkac.org/legal/pi_indiana.html
> >
> >
> > Loren Haarsma
> >
> >
> Bill No. 246, Indiana State Legislature, 1897, was introduced January 19,
> 1897. It was sent to committee, First Canals then Education. The State
> Superintendent of Education was all for it. It came up for second reading
> February 5. Rules were unanimously suspended to allow a third reading and
> immediate passage. It was read in the Senate February 11 and referred to
> the Committee on Temperance. Professor C. A. Waldo (of Indiana
> University, if I recall correctly) happened to come by on February 12 and
> was properly shocked. As a consequence, the bill was postponed
> indefinitely.
>
> The author of the value of pi was E. J. Goodwin, M.D., of Solitude,
> IN--far southwest corner of the state. I have read the bill and cannot
> decide what the value of pi was supposed to be. Waldo wrote that the
> value was both 4 and 3.2. His memoir is "What Might have Been,"
> _Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science_, 26:445f (1916). It seems
> to be inaccurate in some places. The text of the bill is in Will E.
> Edington, "House Bill No. 246, Indiana State Legislature, 1897," _ibid._
> 45:206-210 (1935).
>
> An apparently more complete reference is in "Rules for Making Pi
> Digestible" in the Contributors' Club, _Atlantic Monthly_, 156;118f (July
> 1935). I have not read it. Edward J. Goodwin's paper on one aspect of the
> subject, "Quadrature of the Circle," is in _American Mathematical
> Monthly_,1:246f (July 1894).
>
> Lancelot Hogben, _Mathematics for the Millions_, (3rd ed; Norton, 1951)
> p. 255, has a multiply mistaken claim.
> Dave
>
>
Received on Tue Nov 23 17:39:36 2004