Pity poor Edwin Goodwin, destroyer of maths.
He proved beyond doubt that pi was not an infinite stream of numbers. Pi was 3.2.
His house was invaded by men holding rulers. And they said: “Pi will remain irrational.”
He said “But I’ve proved it’s not.”
“True,” said they. “Congratulations. But we’ve invested far too much in its irrationality to change things now.”
So his discovery that could change the world was shelved, to be laughed at for years after.
Remember, then, the real truth from this tale: when enough people want a thing to be impossible, impossible it shall remain.
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In 1894, Edwin J Goodwin thought he’d succeeded in squaring the circle. He hadn’t, largely because he seems to have misunderstood the definition of squaring and, for that matter, the definition of circle.
Unless, of course, that’s just what they want you to think.
In other fun geometry news, you should have a look at this compass-and-ruler game. And then kiss goodbye to any pretence at productivity you may have had today.
1 comment… add one
“when enough people want a thing to be impossible, impossible it shall remain.”
… until enough people (or more determined people) want it to be possible.
Re: http://www.aitnaru.org/images/Pi_Corral.pdf
Geometers will easily comprehend that this new concept of Pi simply substitutes one ratio (ASR) for another (Pi) … and both ratios include the mysterious and stimulating essence of irrationality!
Such is the nature of squared circles!
Pi Day 2014 presents an excellent opportunity to instruct Pi aficionados about the Pi ratio and how this same ratio can be represented as a cosine angle.