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+-   111 Years Ago, Indiana Legislated Pi-> on Tuesday February 05 2008, @07:40PM I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property

Submitted by I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property on Tuesday February 05 2008, @07:40PM
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I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "On February 5, 1897, 111 years ago today, that the Indiana legislature very nearly sponsored a bill "introducing a new mathematical truth," that would have erroneously established pi as the ratio "five-fourths to four" or 3.2. The story explaining the rationale behind the bill and how they were prevented from legislating it when a real mathematician intervened is quite interesting, because the man who discovered it wanted to charge royalties which could have made pi the first form of irrational property."
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