Teaching Approximations (was Re: Microcode, which is a no-go for

[Fred Cisin]

>> I first encountered it about 60 years ago, in fifth grade.  Our textbook
>> said, "PI is about 3.1416 or 22/7."  Our teacher insisted that that
>> sentence meant "PI is about 3.1416, or exactly 22/7."  I argued it.  I
>> pointed out that 22/7 was about 3.1429, and "why would they say 'about
>> 3.1416' instead of 'about 3.1429' if it were actually 22/7?"  I got sent
>> to the principal's office.  My father, who COULD recite a dozen digits of
>> PI gave me a hard time about "staying out of trouble".
On Wed, 9 Jan 2019, Tony Duell wrote:
> Nice to know that clueless schoolteachers are not limited to the UK. I had
> my fair share of them <mumble> years ago...

They have not been limited to the UK for more than half aa millenium.
USA caught up many hundreds of years ago.