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> Pi = 3, coincidentally, is the Hebrew Bible's approximation too.

Certainly it's not explicitly spelled out. The example I've heard was the outer diameter and inner circumference of a vessel's circular rim were given. Pi comes out to 3 only if the thickness of the rim of the vessel is zero.



Yes I was over-egging the cake.

It is a large cast bowl in 1 Kings 7:23ff. It's beloved of a certain kind of 'gotcha' internet skeptic "Proof that the bible thinks Pi is 3 !!1! How dumb are teh Christians!".

But the passage itself even mentions the thickness of the bowl, and there's no reason to assume the numbers are anything more than a description of a particular bowl (which inevitably wouldn't have been perfectly circular).


even if the measurements were both outer measurements, the actual value of pi is within the typically assumed error bounds (30/10 < pi but 30.5/9.5 > pi.)




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