From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII X-Google-Thread: 103376,9e927c332cabaf8f X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Bryce Bardin Subject: Re: Loss of Mars Climate Orbiter due to units of measurment conf Date: 1999/10/25 Message-ID: <3814E7C5.9844F6B0@home.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 540533671 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit References: <38147DBD.8214F32C@ftw.rsc.raytheon.com> X-Accept-Language: en,en-GB,en-US,fr,fr-BE,fr-CA,fr-FR,fr-CH,de,de-AT,de-DE,de-CH,it,es,es-AR,es-CO,es-MX,es-ES Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 X-Complaints-To: abuse@home.net X-Trace: news1.alsv1.occa.home.com 940894128 24.7.50.190 (Mon, 25 Oct 1999 16:28:48 PDT) Organization: @Home Network MIME-Version: 1.0 NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 16:28:48 PDT Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1999-10-25T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Keith Thompson wrote: > > gisle@lunde.ii.uib.no (Gisle S�lensminde) writes: > [...] > > Even worse. In according to an old Norwegian translation of Guinness > > book of records, they decided it to be exactly equal 4.0 The record was > > "the most unprecise estimate of pi". I don't have the book at hand now, > > so I can't give further details. > > This is *way* off-topic, but you can find more information in Petr > Beckmann's book "A History of pi". In 1897, "A bill introducing > a new Mathematical truth" was introduced in the Indiana House of > Representatives. The bill was full of internal contradictions; > one could conclude from the first paragraph that pi = 16/sqrt(3), or > about 9.2376. After going through the committees on Swamp Lands and > Education, the House passed the bill 67-0. Fortunately, a mathematics > professor happened to be visiting the state Senate on the day the > bill came up for debate there (after going through the Committee > on Temperance). On his recommendation, further consideration of the > bill was postponed indefinitely. It hasn't been on the agenda since. > > -- > Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst@cts.com > San Diego Supercomputer Center <*> > "Oh my gosh! You are SO ahead of your time!" -- anon. The full story is reported on the following web page: http://www.acc.umu.se/~olletg/pi/indiana.html It says in part: "The bill implies four different values for pi and one for sqrt(2), as follows: pi' =3D 16/sqrt(3), 2 sqrt(5 pi/6), 16 sqrt(2)/7, 16/5 ( 9.24 , 3.236 , 3.232 , 3.2 respectively.) sqrt(2)' =3D 10/7." (I was quoted the "16/5" value by many of my colleagues when I was on the Physics faculty of Indiana University.) P.S. Keith, by the way, what is that I see in one of your e-mail addresses about Shavian "fish" nets?