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=0.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05,INVALID_MSGID, PP_MIME_FAKE_ASCII_TEXT 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: Keith Thompson Subject: Re: Loss of Mars Climate Orbiter due to units of measurment conf Date: 1999/10/25 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 540502322 Sender: kst@king.cts.com References: <38147DBD.8214F32C@ftw.rsc.raytheon.com> X-Trace: thoth.cts.com 940888926 9805 198.68.168.21 (25 Oct 1999 22:02:06 GMT) Organization: CTS Network Services Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@cts.com Date: 1999-10-25T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: 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.