Its an interesting story but a bit misrepresented. Here’s how the post title is misrepresenting the story but it misses lots of the details:
Here’s the problem that has consumed ancient Greek mathematicians and countless others: given a circle, construct a square with the same area as it using only a compass and straightedge.
In 1894 physician and mathematical dabbler Edward J. Goodwin believed he had found [a proof]
he would allow the state to use his proof without paying royalties
The proof made a mistake that set the value of pi to 3.2
The article points out it was an odd piece of legislation because royalties aren’t charged for proofs but doesn’t really make clear what this proof was going to be used for. Just:
they seemed confused about the bill’s contents and played hot potato with it, tossing it to the Committee on Canals, which flung it over to the Committee on Education. They held three formal readings of the bill before voting
Its an interesting story but a bit misrepresented. Here’s how the post title is misrepresenting the story but it misses lots of the details:
The proof made a mistake that set the value of pi to 3.2
The article points out it was an odd piece of legislation because royalties aren’t charged for proofs but doesn’t really make clear what this proof was going to be used for. Just:
they seemed confused about the bill’s contents and played hot potato with it, tossing it to the Committee on Canals, which flung it over to the Committee on Education. They held three formal readings of the bill before voting