A slice of bigger Pi

Somehow, I let Tuesday slip by without telling you it was Pi Day (because the date was 3/14 -- the first three digits of Pi), "celebrated across the United States by math nerds, students, teachers and professors, from elementary school to university . . . "

This site will tell you everything you want to know about Pi, including an ignominious episode in Indiana legislative history (just keep scrolling down to the part that says, charitably, "less accurate approximations"). You might think the General Assembly was ambitious this session, but there was a time when some of its members attempted to redefine Pi, by legislative decree, as 3.2, thus getting rid of that pesky infinite string of numbers. The measure was introduced by Edward J. Goodwin, who was also a physician and amateur mathematician. 

The Indiana Assembly referred the bill to the Committee on Swamp Lands, which Peter Beckman has seen as symbolic. It was transferred to the Committee on Education, which reported favorably, and the bill passed unanimously. One argument used was that Goodwin had copyrighted his discovery, and proposed to let the State use it in the public schools for free. As this debate concluded, Professor C. A. Waldo arrived in Indianapolis to secure the annual appropriation for the Indiana Academy of Sciences. An assemblyman handed him the bill, offering to introduce him to the genius who wrote it. He declined, saying that he already knew as many crazy people as he cared to.

The Indiana Senate had not yet finally passed the bill (which they had referred to the Committee on Temperance), and Professor Waldo coached enough Senators overnight that they postponed the bill indefinitely.

UPDATE: Check out the links in Doug's comment for much more on this wonderful example of legislative hubris.