103-Legislating Pi

In 1897, confused physician Edward J. Goodwin submitted a bill to the Indiana General Assembly declaring that he'd squared the circle -- a mathematical feat that was known to be impossible. In today's show we'll examine the Indiana pi bill, its colorful and eccentric sponsor, and its celebrated course through a bewildered legislature and into mathematical history.

We'll also marvel at the confusion wrought by turkeys and puzzle over a perplexing baseball game.

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Sources for our feature on the Indiana pi bill:

Edward J. Goodwin, "Quadrature of the Circle," American Mathematical Monthly 1:7 (July 1894), 246–248.

Text of the bill.

Underwood Dudley, "Legislating Pi," Math Horizons 6:3 (February 1999), 10-13.

Will E. Edington, “House Bill No. 246, Indiana State Legislature, 1897,” Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science 45, 206-210.

Arthur E. Hallerberg, "House Bill No. 246 Revisited," Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science 84 (1974), 374–399.

Arthur E. Hallerberg, "Indiana's Squared Circle," Mathematics Magazine 50:3 (May 1977), 136–140.

David Singmaster, "The Legal Values of Pi," Mathematical Intelligencer 7:2 (1985), 69–72.

Listener mail:

Zach Goldhammer, "Why Americans Call Turkey 'Turkey,'" Atlantic, Nov. 26, 2014.

Dan Jurafsky, "Turkey," The Language of Food, Nov. 23, 2010 (accessed April 21, 2016).

Accidental acrostics from Julian Bravo:

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:STASIS starts at line 7261 (“Says I to myself” in Chapter XXVI).

Frankenstein:CASSIA starts at line 443 (“Certainly; it would indeed be very impertinent” in Letter 4).MIGHTY starts at line 7089 (“Margaret, what comment can I make” in Chapter 24).

Moby Dick:BAIT starts at line 12904 (“But as you come nearer to this great head” in Chapter 75). (Note that this includes a footnote.)

The raw output of Julian's program is here; he warns that it may contain some false positives.

At the paragraph level (that is, the initial letters of successive paragraphs), Daniel Dunn found these acrostics (numbers refer to paragraphs):

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: SEMEMES (1110)

Emma: INHIBIT (2337)

King James Bible: TAIWAN (12186)

Huckleberry Finn: STASIS (1477)

Critique of Pure Reason: SWIFTS (863)

Anna Karenina: TWIST (3355)

At the word level (the initial letters of successive words), Daniel found these (numbers refer to the position in a book's overall word count -- I've included links to the two I mentioned on the show):

Les Miserables: DASHPOTS (454934)

Critique of Pure Reason: TRADITOR (103485)

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: ISATINES (373818)

Through the Looking Glass: ASTASIAS (3736)

War and Peace: PIRANHAS (507464) (Book Fifteen, Chapter 1, paragraph 19: "'... put it right.' And now he again seemed ...")

King James Bible: MOHAMAD (747496) (Galatians 6:11b-12a, "... mine own hand. As many as desire ...")

The Great Gatsby: ISLAMIC (5712)

Huckleberry Finn: ALFALFA (62782)

Little Women: CATFISH (20624)

From Vadas Gintautas: Here is the complete list of accidental acrostics of English words of 8 letters or more, found by taking the first letter in successive paragraphs:

TABITHAS in George Sand: Some Aspects of Her Life and Writings by René Doumic

BASSISTS in The Pilot and his Wife by Jonas Lie

ATACAMAS in Minor Poems of Michael Drayton

MAINTAIN in The Stamps of Canada by Bertram W.H. Poole

BATHMATS in Fifty Years of Public Service by Shelby M. Cullom

ASSESSES in An Alphabetical List of Books Contained in Bohn's Libraries

LATTICES in History of the Buccaneers of America by James Burney

ASSESSES in Old English Chronicles by J. A. Giles

BASSISTS in Tales from the X-bar Horse Camp: The Blue-Roan "Outlaw" and Other Stories by Barnes

CATACOMB in Cyrano De Bergerac

PONTIANAK in English Economic History: Select Documents by Brown, Tawney, and Bland

STATIONS in Haunted Places in England by Elliott O'Donnell

TRISTANS in Revolutionary Reader by Sophie Lee Foster

ALLIANCE in Latter-Day Sweethearts by Mrs. Burton Harrison

TAHITIAN in Lothair by Benjamin Disraeli

Vadas' full list of accidental acrostics in the King James Bible (first letter of each verse) for words of at least five letters:

ASAMA in The Second Book of the Kings 16:21TRAIL in The Book of Psalms 80:13AMATI in The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel 3:9STABS in The Acts of the Apostles 23:18ATTAR in The Book of Nehemiah 13:10FLOSS in The Gospel According to Saint Luke 14:28SANTA in The First Book of the Chronicles 16:37WATTS in Hosea 7:13BAATH in The Acts of the Apostles 15:38ASSAM in The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel 12:8CHAFF in The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans 4:9FIFTH in The Book of Psalms 61:3SAABS in The Third Book of the Kings 12:19SATAN in The Book of Esther 8:14TANGS in Zephaniah 1:15STOAT in The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 16:20IGLOO in The Proverbs 31:4TEETH in Hosea 11:11RAILS in The Book of Psalms 80:14STATS in The First Book of the Kings 26:7HALON in The Fourth Book of the Kings 19:12TATTY in The Gospel According to Saint John 7:30DIANA in The Second Book of the Kings 5:4ABAFT in The Third Book of Moses: Called Leviticus 25:39BAHIA in The Book of Daniel 7:26TRAILS in The Book of Psalms 80:13FIFTHS in The Book of Psalms 61:3BATAAN in The First Book of Moses: Called Genesis 25:6DIANAS in The Second Book of the Kings 5:4BATAANS in The Second Book of the Chronicles 26:16

Vadas' full list of accidental acrostics (words of at least eight letters) found by text-wrapping the Project Gutenberg top 100 books (for the last 30 days) to line lengths from 40 to 95 characters (line length / word found):

Ulysses58 / SCOFFLAW

Great Expectations75 / HIGHTAIL

Dracula58 / PONTIACS

Emma52 / BRAINWASH

War and Peace43 / MISCASTS

The Romance of Lust: A Classic Victorian Erotic Novel by Anonymous42 / FEEBLEST77 / PARAPETS

Steam, Its Generation and Use by Babcock & Wilcox Company52 / PRACTISE

The Count of Monte Cristo46 / PLUTARCH

The Republic57 / STEPSONS

A Study in Scarlet61 / SHORTISH

The Essays of Montaigne73 / DISTANCE

Crime and Punishment49 / THORACES

Complete Works--William Shakespeare42 / HATCHWAY58 / RESTARTS91 / SHEPPARD

The Time Machine59 / ATHLETIC

Democracy in America, VI89 / TEARIEST

The King James Bible41 / ATTACKING56 / STATUSES61 / CATBOATS69 / ASTRAKHAN85 / SARATOVS

Anna Karenina46 / TSITSIHAR74 / TRAILING

David Copperfield48 / COMPACTS58 / SABBATHS

Le Morte d'Arthur, Volume I55 / KAWABATA

Vadas also points out that there's a body of academic work addressing acrostics in Milton's writings. For example, in Book 3 of Paradise Lost Satan sits among the stars looking "down with wonder" at the world:

Such wonder seis'd, though after Heaven seen,The Spirit maligne, but much more envy seis'dAt sight of all this World beheld so faire.Round he surveys, and well might, where he stoodSo high above the circling CanopieOf Nights extended shade ...

The initial letters of successive lines spell out STARS. Whether that's deliberate is a matter of some interesting debate. Two further articles:

Mark Vaughn, "More Than Meets the Eye: Milton's Acrostics in Paradise Lost," Milton Quarterly 16:1 (March 1982), 6–8.

Jane Partner, "Satanic Vision and Acrostics in Paradise Lost," Essays in Criticism 57:2 (April 2007), 129-146.

And listener Charles Hargrove reminds us of a telling acrostic in California's recent political history.

This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Lawrence Miller, based on a Car Talk Puzzler credited to Willie Myers.

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Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode.

If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at [email protected]. Thanks for listening!