# Leave it to The Onion to quell a lot of "Great" Debates...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-it-to-the-onion-to-quell-a-lot-of-great-debates/16874>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [October 25, 1999, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-it-to-the-onion-to-quell-a-lot-of-great-debates/16874 "1999-10-25T21:53:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Surgoshan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Surgoshan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surgoshan)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 1999, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-it-to-the-onion-to-quell-a-lot-of-great-debates/16874/21 "1999-10-29T06:20:00Z")

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Now Mike, that’s going a just a LITTLE too far, don’t you think?

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**Author:** ![Fantastic\_User](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ccd318/32.png) [@Fantastic\_User](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fantastic_User)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 1999, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-it-to-the-onion-to-quell-a-lot-of-great-debates/16874/22 "1999-10-29T06:52:00Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> And don’t forget to keep peeking into the bedrooms of people you don’t like! (While ignoring well-known affairs of those who are your allies.)

[font color=“red”\>Sounds like a conspiracy to me!\</font]

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**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 1999, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-it-to-the-onion-to-quell-a-lot-of-great-debates/16874/23 "1999-10-29T07:21:00Z")

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I’ve just read the snopes pi=3 story. Funny stuff. One thought-provoking “quote,” however did provoke me to thinking. One of the arguers in favor of the legislation mentioned that the ratio of the circumference of a circle (when that circle is formed by slicing off a chunk of sphere) to its “diameter” (I assume, determined by measuring the parabolic side of the slice, rather than the flat side) is clearly not equal to 3.14159. Another arguer quoted the verse in Kings which brought up the original issue. This verse is describing an altar font, which I would tend to think of as being basin-shaped, as being ten cubits across and thirty cubits around, and round in the compass (actually, the quote in the snopes story was “ten cubits across, and thirty cubits in diameter, and round in the compass,” a pretty good trick, but let’s assume a careless error in transcription on someone’s part, and that 1 Kings 7:23 is basically as I described). If you measure the interior surface of a basin for your diameter, instead of through space across the top, it is eacy to see that the ratio of circumference to “diameter” is \<3.14159:1.

I’m not mathematician enough to design such a basin, except through trial and error, but if someone wanted to , I suppose he could manage a pi of 3.0, if he was willing to cheat as to what a “diameter” is

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