11/13   When I was in grade school, one year a new kid from Florida joined
        our class.  The only thing I remember about him is that he was taught
        that pi = 3.  This was 5th or 6th grade.  -N'04!
        \_ Actually, many physicists use 3 for pi and 10 for g when doing
           quick calculations.  For the most part, calculations are
           considered legit if they're within an order of magnitude.
           \_ the most severe case of this is theoretical astrophysics. usually
              they let pi, the speed of light, planks constant and a slew of
              other constants be one so they can just focus on the *form*
              of the equations.  it all depends on what you're trying to do.
              i'd much rather have someone use 3 or 3.1 and know why that's
              ok in a certain situation than use 3.141592653589793238 for
              finding the area of a circular birthday cake ten inches across
              and not understand why that's pointless. of course this has
              nothing to do with the above post, but i think it's an
              important issue appropos of the proliferation of calculators
              in classrooms today.
              \_ speed of light = 1, okay, that just involves changing your
                 measurement units.  But pi = 1?  So it mever causes problem
                 when the circumference of a circle is as long as its diameter?
                 \_ Usually, they don't let p or h (h bar) or some of the other
                    constants equal 1, they just lump them together as a constant
                    factor. The only value I've seen set to one is c. ----ranga
                \_ I don't think they were calculating stellar distances or
                   looking for the form of the equation in my former classmate's
                   Florida 4th grade classroom.