Friday, Apr. 01, 2011
Alabama Redefines Pi - 1998
Scientists aren't exactly friendly toward Alabama's efforts to push intelligent design in schools, but one hit below the belt when he published an article in the April 1998 issue of New Mexicans for Science and Reason suggesting that the Alabama legislature was tampering with the mathematical constant pi. The article, penned by physicist Mark Boslough writing under the pseudonym April Holiday, suggested Alabama was redefining pi as 3.0 instead of 3.14 to keep it closer to the "biblical value." State legislators were swamped by angry callers beseeching them to leave pi alone.