The Indiana Highway Department asked the state legislature for funds to buy a calculator in 1940.
A legislator asked "Why do you need a calculator? You are not mathematicians!"
The engineers replied that they need to be able to make accurate calculations often involving pi, which is 3.1415926535....
The legislator answer was "We don't have money for a calculator. But we have decided to change the value of pi to 4."
[from Math and the Mona Lisa
received by e-mail & worth passing on]
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