A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume IIDe Morgan, Augustus
Philosophy
A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II
De Morgan, Augustus
Circle-squaring; Perpetual motion; Science -- Miscellanea; Trisection of angle
if anybody.
THE TRISECTION AND QUADRATURE AGAIN.
A method to trisect a series of angles having relation to each other;
also another to trisect any given angle. By James Sabben. 1848 (two
quarto pages).
"The consequence of years of intense thought": very likely, and very sad.
1848. The following was sent to me in manuscript. I give the whole of it:
"_Quadrature of the Circle_.--A quadrant is a curvilinear angle traversing
round and at an equal distance from a given point, called a center, no two
points in the curve being at the same angle, but irreptitiously graduating
from 90 to 60. It is therefore a mean angle of 90 and 60, which is 75,
because it is more than 60, and less than 90, approximately from 60 to 90,
and from 90 to 60, with equal generation in each irreptitious
approximation, therefore meeting in 75, and which is the mean angle of the
quadrant.
"Or suppose a line drawn from a given point at 90, and from the same point
at 60. Let each of these lines revolve on this point toward each other at
an equal ratio. They will become one line at 75, and bisect the curve,
which is one-sixth of the entire circle. The result, taking 16 as a
diameter, gives an area of 201.072400, and a circumference of 50.2681.
"The original conception, its natural harmony, and the result, to my own
mind is a demonstrative truth, which I presume it right to make known,
though perhaps at the hazard of unpleasant if not uncourteous remarks."
I have added punctuation: the handwriting and spelling {11} are those of an
educated person; the word _irreptitious_ is indubitable. The whole is a
natural curiosity.
The quadrature and exact area of the circle demonstrated. By Wm.
Peters. 8vo. _n. d._ (circa 1848).[29]
Suggestions as to the necessity for a revolution in philosophy; and
prospectus for the establishment of a new quarterly, to be called the
_Physical Philosopher and Heterodox Review_. By Q. E. D. 8vo. 1848.
These works are by one author, who also published, as appears by
advertisement,
"Newton rescued from the precipitancy of his followers through a century
and a half,"[30] and "Dangers along a coast by correcting (as it is called)
a ship's reckoning by bearings of the land at night fall, or in a fog,
nearly out of print. Subscriptions are requested for a new edition."
The area of a circle is made four-fifths of the circumscribed square:
proved on an assumption which it is purposed to explain in a longer
essay.[31] The author, as Q. E. D., was in controversy with the _Athenaeum_
journal, and criticised a correspondent, D., who wrote against a certain
class of discoverers. He believed the common theories of hydrostatics to be
wrong, and one of his questions was:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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