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Page 16 · column 2 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
Community Newspapers chain, was on the story like a seagull on a French fry. Pi Day was being celebrated in the county in odd ways.
VDOT was building mysterious traffic circles deep in the woods. Members of the Board of Supervisors were circumambulating the county’s perimeter as part of a time-honored ritual. Even though they knew the boundary line of the county was diamond-shaped, not circular, the Board felt it was close enough for government work.
In the year 2000. the newspaper exposed a group on the Internet called “The Brotherhood,” who claimed that pi was equal to three. ‘The Brotherhood" said pi was a whole number just like any other number. The circumference of a circle was three times the diameter. They claimed that the .14159 part was caused by the little bumps made by a pen or pencil on a piece of paper when people tried to draw the circle. Rappahannock County’s Pi Day fans soon stifled that heresy.
In 2001, a new group appeared on the horizon to keep the Pi Day people alert: the boosters of the Coriolis Effect. These were county citizens who believed that water swirled down a bathtub drain or sink
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