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