i have recently discovered the true value of pi = 3 from the Indiana state legislature? well done, bigbdwoof - a crew of inebriated legislators many decades ago are now pleased as punch your circles are going to look funny, though The bible says it is three too. bible says a few things which are doubtful skyman well, 3 is close enough for me simpler more elegant really no it doesnt sky does too! the bible never defined pi does not too! give us chapter and verse, then, skyman kids kids i know the passage very well make me an offer! it says that there is a vessel in the temple whose circumference is 30 cubits and diameter is 10 It talks about a circular thingy that is 3x as far around as it is across :P that's it, avigail. aside from the obvious fact that it is only giving approximate values the word for "circumference" used there is "kava" insead of the more usual "kav" the numerical value of "kav" is 106 the numerical value of "kava" is 111 (in hebrew, as in greek, the same symbols are used for letters and numbers) if you multiply 3 by 111/106, you get 3.1416 a pretty good estimate for pi well done, avigail !!!!!!! Action: gloriosky brings on the blue ribbon and gold star (plus cookies and ice cream) because THIS is the quality of discussion #Mensa needs really good, avigail :) Action: Skyman_ is impressed i didnt make that one up it was pointed out by the famous Rabbi the Gaon of Vilna in the 19th century the point is that there is no reason in that discussion for any sort of accuracy, so the figures are given in whole numbers three cheers for Rabbi the Gaon of Vilna - a person unafraid to mix science and religion but the calculations in the talmud for pi show that they knew of the approximation 333/106 and used it why didnt they just cut to the chase avigail why stay one step away from the end result? for the same reason that if you were asked to describe, say, the dimensions of the dome of the US capitol you would probably do so in whole numbers, not getting into fractions if what they want is to use the result they should just use 3.14 saying "3.14" was not easy before the decimal point was invented (by Simon Stevin) and remember we are talking about an incidental description of some vessels in the temple not a geometry lesson point is they used it, decimal point and all the greeks seemed to have no problems with decimals jane -- how far is it from your house to the corner of the block? the greeks didnt use decimals or even fractions they came up with pi the greeks used "proportions" semantics no, an important philosophical difference proportions were not numbers! just ratios the Pythagoreans thought that there was no quantity that could not be expressed as a ratio of two whole numbers the Pythagoreans were wrong and they became irrational when they discovered that was not true. philosophical maybe but we are talking practical implications of mathematics it was suggested to the state senate of indiana, and was referred (by a chairman with a sense of humor) to the committee on swamps, where it died avigail: i am chronically wrong, that is why i am here, to learn those two numbers avi : kav and kava, what are they exaclty JL: in hebrew every letter has a numerical value kav has value 106 (kuf - vav) kava has value 111 (kuf - vav - heh) in the talmud? no, in the bible book of kings are you a biblical scholar, avi? no arryana but i have read it of course -- in the original! that makes you a scholar of it in my book. <|killjoy|> sounds like i missed something interesting :) i think i missed it too. avigail was asserting a biblical reference to pi i wasnt asserting anything, just pointing out that skyman was repeating a common fallacy without checking up on things