Subject: Re: [NEXTEL-1] Re: A Lighter Moment-

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 15:29:51 EST

Thank you very, very much.  And, BTW, my wife was a Hoosier too.  Imagine 
what my house was last year at this time during the Indiana/Maryland Final 
Four game!!

Alan T.

In a message dated 3/27/2003 11:09:13 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
[email-masked] writes:

> I've heard this attributed to several states, though my home state 
> Indiana really did try to redefine pi in 1897.  The bill had made it
> through one chamber of the state legislature and was on it's way to 
> being passed until a math professor from Purdue (my alma mater) 
> pointed out how silly and inconsistent the bill was.  (According to 
> the Indiana legislature, pi had 3 different values depending on what 
> definition you chose.)  After that, the Bill died before becoming
> law, but the legend lives on...  See 
> http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_341.html
> 
> As a side note, about the same time this was going on, round barns 
> became popular in Indiana.  One of the reasons often cited for the 
> phenomena is that county tax assessors consistently underestimated 
> the size of round barns.  So perhaps defining pi was an attempt to 
> boost tax revenue?
> 
> --zawada
> (Hoosier by birth, Boilermaker by grace of God)
>

---

From: Jim Slagle <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 20:30:15 -0500

A number of years ago I attended the first overlay hearings the PUC held in 
Texas.  The 214 hearing for Dallas was relatively  uneventful.

Houston was another matter.  The entire Houston area was 713 back 
then.  The proposal was to either overlay or subdivide, adding in some 
fashion area codes 281, 282, 283, etc over time.  One of the state 
legislators and her staff presented a proposal against the overlay and 
recommending a method of division of the area.  They drew a large circle on 
their map and divided it into several equal sized pie shapes.  In the 
center, there was  a small circle around Loop 610 (equivalent of 
I495/Beltway in washington) to remain 713.  Each of the large pie shapes 
was assigned it's own area code.  The pie slice with the farmland where the 
pop count was listed in acres per sub got an entire area code the same as a 
another same sized slice where there the folks were stacked up like 
cordwood in hi rises.  There was silence when they finished their 
presentation.  Finally one of the commissioners said "Thank You" and called 
for the next party.

Jim

At 01:00 AM 3/28/2003 +0000, you wrote:
>Subject: Re: Re: A Lighter Moment-
>
>In a message dated 3/26/2003 9:33:54 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>[email-masked] writes:
>
> > Did you ever hear about the IL legislator who entered a bill into the
> > state government for consideration that would have redefined PI from
> > 3.14159... to 3.000 because "...it was easier to work with..."?  I am
> > assured it's a true story...
> >
> > Dave Maples
> >
>
>Hey, if you can get some kind of actual record of this, I'd appreciate it.
>My wife is a math teacher, and she has about a dozen Pi shirts (Cow Pi, Pizza
>Pi, Chocolate Pi, you name it).  I'd love to give her this one!
>
>Alan

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