Talk:Ruler-and-compass construction
From Academic Kids
At some time in the past I Heard the commentators for professional wrestling refer to the ring in which activity takes place as the "squared circle". This is an excellent example of pseudo-science in the service of pseudo-sport. Eclecticology
We need more on doubling the cube and angle trisection. The Anome
Mathematicians are notoriously incompetent historians. Gauss NEVER gave a proof of the necessity of the constructibility of the regular n-gon. WANTZEL proved this in 1837. If you read otherwise, it's because mathematicians are sloppy historians. Revolver
- Or is it the historians who are sloppy, notoriously incompetent mathematicians? ;-)
- —Herbee 18:43, 2004 Mar 13 (UTC)
- No, the people doing the history are mathematicians specialising in history of math, not the other way around. (True for most sciences...you have to have some understanding of the material.) Revolver 13:08, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- It is definitely the fault of mathematicians here. Some VERY famous names aided and abetted this myth, without checking into it themselves. You'd think being math people, they would question things. Revolver 13:09, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)
'Compass' vs 'compasses'
The article mixes the two words compass and compasses with obviously the same meaning. Both words are acceptable according to Webster's (http://www.m-w.com/), but for the sake of consistency I'm changing all to compass. Why not compasses? Because that way I don't have to move the article, and anyway "ruler and compasses construction" is less agreeable to the ear.
—Herbee 18:43, 2004 Mar 13 (UTC)
merge
MERGE: This needs to be merged with Constructible number and all the other articles on specific impossibility proofs. These overlap a lot, yet none of them should try to cover every topic. Revolver 13:08, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)
