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Debunker

No, Republicans Are Not Trying to Make the Value of Pi “Exactly 3″

by Robert Quigley | 12:11 pm, March 24th, 2011

One of the most popular articles on The Huffington Post right now is about a Republican Congressional proposal called “HR 205, The Geometric Simplification Act,” which aims to make the value of pi “exactly 3.” Reading the article carefully, it’s pretty clear it’s satire: “‘It’s no panacea, but this legislation will point us in the right direction. Looking at hard data, we know our children are struggling with a heck of a lot of the math, including the geometry incorporating pi,’ Roby said. ‘I guarantee you American scores will go up once pi is 3. It will be so much easier.’” And Ron Workman has traced its origin to an ancient Internet rumor that was debunked by Snopes in 1998. (The real HR 205 under consideration by Congress now is actually about Native American tribal land-leasing.)

But here’s the thing: Thanks to the A.D.D.-enabling power of social media, all it takes is a truncated Facebook headline and excerpt for people to form an opinion about a story, and many of them don’t actually read it. This article has been shared on Facebook more than 52,000 times, and an Openbook search of recent Facebook status updates shows that a lot of people believe this is for real. “epic fail, no wonder we suck at math and science,” writes one.

Part of the problem is the domain name: Whereas most people know not to take an article with an onion.com URL seriously, this article, which appeared in the Huffington Post’s rather poorly marked Comedy section, simply shows a huffingtonpost.com URL, and that looks legit at a glance. Even the comments at the bottom of the article on HuffPo, by which point you’d hope people would have actually read the article, make it clear that many readers are taking it totally at face value.

So, to facilitate a low-attention span format: Republicans are not trying to make the value of pi “exactly 3.” This is an ancient Internet rumor that Snopes debunked when you were like 8 years old. Also, people should probably read articles and not just headlines, when they have the chance.

(via Ron Workman)

  • Anonymous

    Some Republicans are that stupid, though, so the article really wasn’t a stretch.

  • http://alexcolgan.wordpress.com Alex Colgan

    I was 12 years old in 1998. Thanks for making me feel ancient, Geekosystem XD

  • AlphaBase1

    Actually, theTsarita, a bunch of super-duper smartypants liberals did fall for this obvious parody. No ‘stretch’ required. Herp de derp Hope n’ Change! derp de Yes We Can!

  • Kyle Brontzman’s Magnum Opus

    “a huffingtonpost.com URL, and that looks legit at a glance”

    Now that’s rich.

  • Starkravingmad07

    I read it. I believed it could be true because republicans are that stupid.

  • AlphaBase1

    If I glanced at an article titled “A whole bunch of leftys completely fell for a parody article about Republicans wanting to make Pi = 3″, I probably wouldn’t believe it at first glance. I would assume that, you know, you couldn’t find a significant number of libs that would publicly embarrass themselves like that without checking the actual article first.

    But turns out, my gut instinct would be wrong.

    ###

    That’s a lot of complicated words for you to digest, ‘Starkravingmad07′. I’ll give you a chance to work through this before going into more advanced points.

  • Anonymous

    Lol Huffing Huffington Post spreading another chain hoax.

  • http://homework.never-ends.net FekketCantenel

    I wish I could ‘like’ this post a billion times.

  • Legit News Source

    Report: Voting Democrat Makes You Impotent

  • AlphaBase1

    Holy Cow! Look at that article title! This looks serious. Pass it on to your Facebook friends! Retweet!

  • effemmell

    oh man… Wish that was the case. I really do. I always vote dem, just became father of twins 8 months ago, and just found out I have another one or more on the way. If anything, voting dem gives you super sperm. To hell with the country… Next election I’m voting republican.

  • Ravi

    If only Republicans not believing in evolution was all a practical joke as well.

  • http://rachelgitlevich.blogspot.com Rachelgitlevich

    That is hilarious. I’m glad its only a rumor. Hahahaha. I’m expecting there to be a new law passed that changes the numbers of weight in terms of gravity, so that americans can feel better about being fat. LOL.

  • michael

    but it was printed by the chief democratic paper in the nation so it must be real and it must be the truth.  just ask any socialist in the obama cabinet and they will swear to you that it is said truth.

  • cheyenne

    I read the article and believed it… and was very upset. Then I posted it got likes and laughter and couldn’t figure out why everyone thought it was so funny. Call me literal minded but it seemed like the sort of thing people who discredit evolution because it’s a theory (just like general relativity, which makes GPS technology possible, and quantum mechanics, which you can thank for pretty much all modern electronics, but I digress) and in in general don’t take science seriously would do. 

    Even if the first reference of the measured value of pi is in the Bible (and yes, I knew this and it confused me, and hoped someone would be quick to point it out to the people who wrote the bill).And I honestly don’t find the pitch of the article to hint that it’s a joke; many a time have I read articles from The Onion and by the end of the second paragraph at the absolute latest it’s clear that it can’t possibly be true.

    I will no longer trust the Huffington Post as a credible source of (somewhat biased) information.


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