Abstract
ONE more contribution to the long list of works on the Circle, put forth with the usual assurance that now the question must be set at rest. “Dedicated with great deference to the different schools of learning and to the intelligence of the public generally in this and other countries, in the confident hope and full belief that the truth pointed out in these pages will soon be acknowledged.” There is a prefatory notice taking us down to page 16 (there are 48 pages in the pamphlet), from which we learn that the author's name is an assumed one, and that he is now dead. “Introductory” takes us to page 39. “The Secret of the Circle, its Area Ascertained,” occupies the rest of the book. The Rule given is, “Diameter × radius + four-sevenths” (sic), hence our friend π is equated to 22/7. There are ten figures, some pretty to look at, but there is a dearth of letters, and it is often hard to make out what parts are intended in the demonstration. There is much that is true and not new; for instance, that the inscribed dodecagon is equal to the inscribed square and half that square; what is new is not proved to be true. Thus to get the result, the circular segment bounded by the side of the dodecagon ought to be for his purpose 1/84 (radius)2, and this is not shown on pp. 44, 45, for it is not proved there that Q contains the nine segments which it is said to contain. Hence we are led to say that the truth about the Circle is not to be found here.
The Secret of the Circle, its Area Ascertained.
Alick
Carrick
By. (London: H. Sotheran and Co. Chiswick Press, 1876.)
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The Secret of the Circle, its Area Ascertained . Nature 13, 323 (1876). https://doi.org/10.1038/013323b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/013323b0