Which US state tried to legislate a value for pi?

Answer 1

technically it was Indiana, but the bill was never passed, and 3 was not the specified number. it was the response to the bill that referenced The Bible as follows:

THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON: NOT WHAT IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE

Dear Cecil:

Your response to the question about attempts to legislate pi suggests not only that your scholarship is weak but that you are a heathen. When King Solomon constructed the Temple of Jerusalem, the Second Book of Chronicles, chapter 4, verses 2 and 5, tells us:

"Then he made the Sea [a big tub] of cast bronze, ten cubits from one brim to the other; it was completely round. Its height was five cubits and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference. It was a handbreadth thick; and its brim was shaped like the brim of a cup..... It contained three thousand baths."

The ratio of 30 cubits for the circumference to 10 cubits for the diameter "from one brim to the other" of the "completely round" circle gives the value of pi as being exactly 3. Perhaps reliance on the Word of God motivated the Indiana legislators you trashed. You should have checked with the ultimate reference. --H.K.S., Springfield, Virginia

Cecil replies:

Some of the mail I get is unbelievable. As I attempted to point out, the Indiana legislature did not consider making pi equal to 3, but rather to 3.2, 4, or approximately 3.23, depending on which formula you used. Neither the text of the bill nor any of the commentaries regarding it refer to the Bible. Perhaps Tennessee, Oklahoma, Kansas or one of the other states I mentioned was the one that attempted to a legislate a pi of biblical proportions.

Interesting you should bring this up, though. In 150 A.D. a Hebrew rabbi and scholar named Nehemiah attempted to explain away the anomaly in Chronicles by saying that the diameter of the tub was 10 cubits from outer rim to outer rim, whereas the 30 cubit circumference was measured around the inner rim. In other words, the difference between the biblical notion of pi and the actual value may be accounted for by the width of the tub's walls. How's that for tap dancing, eh? Nehemiah lived a long time ago, but I feel he's my spiritual kin.

- Cecil Adams

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/805/did-a-state-legislature-once-pass-a-law-saying-pi-equals-3

Answer 2

In the 19th century, Indiana tried to legislate a value for pi under the Indiana Pi Bill. The bill sought to establish a specific, incorrect value of pi as 3.2, but it was never enacted into law due to its mathematical inaccuracy.

Answer 3

Indiana Bill no. 246 in 1987.

Answer 4

bollo