I was reading about π (pi) today, and of course, went to wikipedia to read about it. One thing that I don't remember so clearly from math class (sad, since I was a mathematics minor....) was ...

The ancient scholar Hippasus of Metapontum was punished with death for his discovery of irrational numbers—or at least that’s the legend. What actually happened in the fifth century B.C.E. is far from ...