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Re: Claim 3.141592653... is new
Posted:
Mar 19, 2008 9:02 AM
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To: Math-History-List at Enterprise MAA ORG:
From: jmanimas@sover.net John Manimas Medeiros, P.O. Box 536, Bellows Falls, VT 05101
Re: proposed revision of math history:
Documents at my website (pythagorascode.org) -- to be shared freely with all who are interested -- are the result of my work of 30 years: how to construct a line length of 3.141592653...using only a compass and straightedge. I provide great detail but with a user-friendly entry into the subject matter. I include a description of my persistent search in "The Treasure of History." In summary, I have believed since 1957 that there had to be a "correct answer" to the original question "Can we construct a square equal in area to the area of a given circle, using only a compass and straightedge." Most mathematicians (not historians) seem to get very irritated by any allegation that there is a correct answer to this ancient riddle. They insist that we cannot construct "pi exactly." But we cannot construct any verifiable irrational decimal fraction length beyond our technology in any case. My position is that the solution I discovered, which I call the "SF Solution," I actually rediscovered, and it was the answer that the Pythagoreans were looking for, from any ancient student in geometry, who wanted to be admitted into the "brotherhood" with the highest level of mastery of the tools of geometry and the reality of proportion, because "Proportion is Everything." Regardless of any other objections to my work, or me, I believe historians should verify whether my work is correct, and if you see that it is correct, that we can construct a line length of 3.141592653..., and then construct squares and circles equal in area to that level of precision, then my work is a revision of the history of geometry and mathematics. There is still the problem, of course, as to how the ancient Pythagoreans could be aware of such precision, the billionth decimal place. My position is that intelligent people don't produce a riddle that has no real, meaningful solution. The real solution in this case, the SF Solution and the Particle Solution, lead the searcher to the conclusion that there must be a smallest possible particle, and any "circle" in the real, physical universe is therefore a regular polygon. Thanks. John
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