Happy PI day!

What proof do we need that our will and our desires do not rule reality? How about a simple number, Pi = 3.141592535...

While it is frequently approximated as 22/7 = 3.1428..., people who are approximating it in that form usually know that they aren't using the actual value, but something "close enough".

Back in 1897, the state of Indiana almost passed an interesting bill to set the value of pi. This is interesting on several accounts:

1. Nobody who passed the bill could understand what they were passing. But the state House of Representatives passed it anyway!
2. It seems the person who originally wrote the bill may have intended to collect royalties from everyone except the state of Indiana for using it.
3. The value (depending on how you read the bill, you may get several different values) was wrong. It seems that one of the most common values interpreted from the bill is that pi was 3.2,

In a case of mind understanding matter, a mathemetician realized the insanity of the occasion and explained the situation to the State Senate.

The Senators made bad puns about it, ridiculed it, and laughed
over it. The fun lasted half an hour. [Then] Senator
Hubbell said that it was not meet for the Senate, which was costing
the State $250 a day [!], to waste its time in such frivolity
... He moved the indefinite postponement of the bill, and the
motion carried.

Do you have a favorite example of government passing a bill that nobody understands?

Happy pi day!
rootie