From: "Peter Trei" <trei@process.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 00:28:05 +0800
To: minow@apple.com
Subject: pi == 3 [was: Re: Chutzpah! FBI Calls Privacy Extremists Elitist
Message-ID: <199709261607.JAA03899@rigel.cyberpass.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



> From:          David HM Spector <spector@zeitgeist.com>

> Re: Pi.... 
> 
> I believe the enlightened Legislator who attempted to legislate Pi was
> none other than Jesse Helms (although this could be a legislative
> myth!) and when Ol'Jesse proposed it (because he was "sick of all these
> egg-heads with their big numbers") John Glenn said something on the
> order of ' if your legislation passes Senator, I wouldn't want to
> driver over any bridges in your state!'

> _DHMS

Not Helms, and not recently. From 'Extraordinary Pi',
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~nickjh/Pi.htm :

     Indiana State Legislature House Bill No. 246, 1897, set the value of
     Pi to a to 3. Duh !

     Actually the wording of the bill is really unclear and can
     interpreted in various ways. Other interpretations include 3.2, 4
     and 9.2376. The bill goes on in a confused way to contradict
     other areas of elementary geometry, and to contradict itself. It
     got passed all the way up to Senate level, then a Mathematics
     Professor noticed it by chance, informed the Senate, and it was
     posponed indefinitely at its second reading.

Peter Trei