Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!emory!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!yale!quasi-eli!cs.yale.edu!horne-scott
From: horne-scott@cs.yale.edu (Scott Horne)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: PI
Message-ID: <27895@cs.yale.edu>
Date: 20 Dec 90 14:13:49 GMT
References: <1942@beguine.UUCP> <JGREELY.90Dec17023300@morganucodon.cis.ohio-state.edu> <591@necssd.NEC.COM>
Sender: news@cs.yale.edu
Organization: Yale University Computer Science Dept., New Haven, CT 06520-2158
Lines: 29
Nntp-Posting-Host: jaguar.zoo.cs.yale.edu
Originator: horne@jaguar.CS.Yale.Edu

In article <591@necssd.NEC.COM> harrison@necssd.NEC.COM (Mark Harrison) writes:
>In article <JGREELY.90Dec17023300@morganucodon.cis.ohio-state.edu>,
<jgreely@morganucodon.cis.ohio-state.edu (J Greely) writes:
<< you might as well just learn 3.141593.
<
<From "The Lure of the Limerick":
<
<	'Tis a favorite value of mine,
<	A new value of PI to assign,
<	  I would set it at three,
<	  for it's simpler, you see,
<	Than three point one four five nine!

First, it's "three point one four ONE five nine" ("two six five three...").
Your knowledge of poetry, if not of pi, should've told you that.

Second, I hope no one mistakenly supposes that the lengths of the words in
that limerick represent the first few digits of pi.  `[F]avorite' spoils it.

Third, setting it at three is a foolish idea which has been tried many times
throughout history.  (Some have even tried to set it at four!)

					--Scott

-- 
Scott Horne                               ...!{harvard,cmcl2,decvax}!yale!horne
horne@cs.Yale.edu      SnailMail:  Box 7196 Yale Station, New Haven, CT   06520
203 436-1817                    Residence:  Rm 1817 Silliman College, Yale Univ
Uneasy lies the head that wears the _gao1 mao4zi_.