Happy Pi Day!
I remember back in school learning the value of pi out to as many digits as I could manage. I would like to say that I memorized it all the way to 20 digits past the decimal or more, but that might be a tall tale. I can at least still remember it to five digits (3.14159). It might have been hard, but it was also fun.
Have you heard the urban legend about the US legislator who tried to make a law redefining pi so that it equals three? I’ve heard it told that the legislator was from several different states, and the legend is usually on a rather vague time scale. It happened last week? Or it could have been decades ago. That alone is enough to consider the story to be a hoax. But truth is stranger than fiction, as there actually was a case in American history where someone really did try to redefine the value of pi.
In 1987, Dr. Edwin J. Goodwin (a physician and amateur mathematician) of the Indiana General Assembly introduce Bill #246 to legislate the value of pi. Thankfully, a professor from Purdue also happened to be in the legislature that day and saved the mighty pi from legislative fiat. The bill was set to pass until it was pointed out that the General Assembly lacked the power to define a mathematical truth. The bill became known as the “Pi Bill,” even though the bill itself never even mentioned pi– it instead sought to change the value needed to “square the circle” which, even in that era, had been deemed an impossibility. How the story became an urban legend is anyone’s guess.
See? Math is fun! Here are some other intriguing math books:
In “How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics,” math professor Eugenia Cheng provides an introduction to the logic and beauty of math– in the kitchen, running marathons and even with Lewis Carroll. She shows that math is more than just numbers and formulas. It’s a way of knowing and understanding things.
In “Thinking in Numbers: On Life, Love, Meaning and Math,” Daniel Tammet shares his insights and love of math to help you see the world with new eyes.
Ian Stewart gives an overview of various problems and why they are important in “Visions of Infinity: The Great Mathematical Problems.” For even more fascinating math books, you can check out this list in the catalog.
Image credit: MjolnirPants, Mathjoke via Wikimedia Commons (license)
