Getting back to the issue of whether it behooves a popularizer-who-knows-better such as myself to engage in talk about "changing the value of pi": I'm going to go ahead with the current version of the essay (which puts in lots of quotation marks but still takes a tone that some of you regard as sensationalistic boggle-mongering of the sort that sows public confusion). Nonetheless: in the spirit of First Amendment rights, I will be glad to approve of comments on my blog that make Eugene's point, whether they come from Eugene or others. Thanks, Jim On Mon, Feb 13, 2017 at 9:38 PM, Eugene Salamin via math-fun < math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> wrote:
It is unfortunate for someone knowledgeable in mathematics to lower himself to the level of the uninformed, instead of making an attempt to raise them up to a higher level. This reminds me of something I was told by a friend who volunteers in the Santa Cruz CA Public School. Apparently it's school doctrine that 1 is a prime number. The teacher told the class that 1 is prime, but added the qualification that mathematicians consider 1 to not be prime. Anyhow, James, it's your First Amendment right to say that π varies with the situation, and it's my First Amendment right to disagree with you.
-- Gene
On Mon, Feb 13, 2017 at 5:28 PM, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> wrote:
On Monday, February 13, 2017, Eugene Salamin via math-fun < math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> wrote:
While some of my suggestions have been included in the current manuscript, I see no change concerning 2π = circumference/radius being a variable.
I put in more air-quotes, and I put in the passage about the Feast of Fools, so that readers who get that far will know that talking about "different values of pi" is mathematical "street talk", not acceptable in the inner precincts of the kingdom.
Eugene and Bill and others would probably prefer a more stringent approach, and if I were the first person to use the phrase "different values of pi" I'd certainly agree with them. However, this slangy way of talking is already pretty standard in parts of the math ed world and on the web, so I don't think I'd be opening any hitherto unopened floodgates of loose usage.
Jim
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