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From: jrh@dixie.aiss.uiuc.edu (Jason R. Heimbaugh)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: They call themselves 'Hoosiers'
Date: 15 Jun 1994 22:01:48 GMT

Being bored one day I sent out a bunch a letters, one to the Legislative Services Agency in Indiana asking for information about the following two lines in the AFU FAQ (quotations cited under fair use):

T.*Indiana House Bill #246 of 1897 would've set pi=3.2, killed in state Senate. T. Public boners are banned in Indiana. Law upheld by US Supreme Court. Copyrighted 1991-94. All rights reserved by Terry Chan (twchan@lbl.gov).

June 2, 1994

Legislative Information
Legislative Services Agency
302 State House
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Dear Sir,

I would like to receive copies of two Indiana state bills, for which I have information that it will cost either $.10 per page for bills over 10 pages or $.15 per page. Whatever the correct figure is, I am sure you will bill me appropriately.

The first bill I would like a copy of is the bill that makes it illegal to have an erection in public. Also, if you happen to know what U.S. Supreme Court decision upheld this law, could you include that as well?

The second bill if House Bill #246 of 1897 that proposed setting the value of pi to 3.2. It was defeated by the Indiana State Senate which raises my doubts as to whether or not you have access to a copy.

Thank you for your time and effort in responding to my requests,

Jason R. Heimbaugh

                        LEGISLATIVE SERVICES AGENCY
                              302 State House
                      Indianapolis, Indiana 46204-2789
                              (317) 232-9550

June 13, 1994

Jason R. Heimbaugh
R.R. 1, Box 120
Champaign, IL 61821

Dear Mr. Heimbaugh:

I have enclosed the following in response to your letter dated June 2, 1994:

     (1) A copy of Engrossed House Bill 246 from the 1897 Session of the
     Indiana General Assembly.  Engrossed House Bill 246 is also known as
     the "Indiana Pi Bill".

     (2) A copy of Indiana's public indecency statute, IC 35-45-4-1.  The
     United States Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of this
     statute in the case "Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc.", 111 S.Ct. 2456
     (1991).  Because the "Barnes" case is some 22 pages long, I have not
     included it so that you would not incur a copy charge.  If you are
     interested [in] reading the case, I'm certain that the law library at
     the University of Illinois would have it.

Please let us know whether you require additional information.

Very truly yours,

Robert J. Rudolph
Deputy Director
Office of Bill Drafting and Research

RJR:rr

Enclosures: as indicated

                           ENGROSSED HOUSE BILL
                                  No. 246

     A Bill for an act introducing a new mathematical truth and offered

as a contribution to education to be used only by the State of Indiana free of cost by paying any royalties whatever on the same, provided it is accepted and adopted by the official action of the Legislature of 1897.

Section -1- Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana: It has been found that a circular area is to the square on a line equal to the quadrant of the circumference, as the area of an equilateral rectangle is to the square on one side. The diameter employed as the linear unit according to the present rule in computing the circle's area is entirely wrong, as it represents the circle's area one and one-fifth times the area of a square whose perimeter is equal to the circumference of the circle. This is because onefifth of the diameter fails to be represented four times in the circle's circumference. For example: if we multiply the perimeter of a square by one-fourth of any line one-fifth greater than one side, we can in like manner make the square's area to appear one-fifth greater than the fact, as is done by taking the diameter for the linear unit instead of the quadrant of the circle's circumference.

Section -2- It is impossible to compute the area of a circle on the diameter as the linear unit without trespassing upon the area outside of the circle to the extent of including one-fifth more area than is contained within the circle's circumference, because the square on the diameter produces the side of a square which equals nine when the arc of ninety degrees equals eight. By taking the quadrant of the circle's circumference for the linear unit, we fulfill the requirements of both quadrature and rectification of the circle's circumference. Furthermore, it has revealed the ratio of the chord and arc of ninety degrees, which is as seven to eight, and also the ratio of the diagonal and one side of a square which is as ten to seven, disclosing the fourth important fact, that the ratio of the diameter and circumference is as five-fourths to four; and because of these facts and the further fact that the rule in present use fails to work both ways mathematically, it should be discarded as wholly wanting and misleading in its practical applications.

Section -3- In further proof of the value of the author's proposed contribution to education and offered as a gift to the State of Indiana, is the fact of his solutions of the trisection of the angle, duplication of the cube and quadrature of the circle having been already accepted as contributions to science by the American Mathematical Monthly, the leading exponent of mathematical thought in this country. And be it remembered that these noted problems had been long since given up by scientific bodies as insolvable mysteries and above man's ability to comprehend.

        ENGROSSED HOUSE BILL
             No. 246

Read first time Jany. 18th, 1897

Referred to Committee on
Canals - rep. and referred to Com.
on Education Jany. 19th, 1897
Reported back Feby. 2d, 1897
Read second time Feby. 5th, 1897
Ordered engrossed Feby. 5th, 1897
Read third time Feby. 5th, 1897
Passed February 5th, 1897
Ayes - 67 - Noes -0-

Introduced by Record

IN THE SENATE.

Read first time and referred to
com. on Temperence, 2/11/97
Reported favorable 2/12/97
Read second time and indefinitely
postponed 2/12/97

See /pub/cathouse/urban.legends/sex/indiana.public.erection.law for other enclosure.