From: Robin Leech <robinl at CONNECT.AB.CA>

[JAMES BASS]

Jim Matta of Bloomington, Indiana wrote (and quoting a previous comment in
this thread), " 'But don't forget that another plains state legislature
(Nebraska?) once passed >a law that the value of pi would henceforth be
4.00.'

This is so far off the wall that it absolutely cannot possibly be true! (So
of course it is.)  Does anybody have a reference for this?  It would be
great in developing an example of the relationship between physical laws and
public opinion."
_____
First of all, Jim, it's not clear if you are disturbed that "4.00" is not the
correctly rounded number or  that they rounded the number.   
(I'm curious...where do you round pi?)  Ah, precision
vs. results.

Now about the Nebraska legislature:  Jim, I checked P. Beckman's STORY OF PI
and on pages 174-179 he relates there are probably apocryphal accounts of
state legislatures trying to impose the Biblical Pi=3 [I Kings vii.23 and 2
Chronicles vi.2----Note, we're still on the same thread as we started!].
Beckman cannot support these stories but  relates in great detail [all 5 pages]
 how one state legislature tried in 1897 to  introduce a bill [House Bill 246, 
January 18, 1897] which would accurately define Pi and that the state had sole
 rights to its use which implies others would have to pay to use this exact definition.  
The state, by the way, was Indiana and a copy of the bill is in its archives.
                                                                                Jim Bass