St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-07-06
sQUARING THE CIRCLE.
A Wrestle With the Great Prob
lem and the Result.

A Wrestle With the Great Prob
lem and the Result.
Edward D. o. Moore. of New York,
father of Thomas Moore, the we'll
known liquor merchant Of pa Nicollet
avenue, is mathematician who
thinks he has succeeded in solving
the great problem of squaring the
circle which has puzzled the scientifi-
cally inclined ever since the time of
Pythagoras down to the census takers
of 1890. He has written a pamphlet in
the aid of diagrams and long tables of
diameters, circumferences and areas of
squares to the number of SCI, all worked
out and set down plainly for the use of
students, mechanics, and advanced
scientists, The learned infallibles are
all said to be in the dark and full of
animosty to the discoverer of the solu-
ton of the great problem.
And why should they not be huffy
towards 'the humble American citizen
of the city of Brooklyn" WHO has ex-
posed their stupidity and pretension?
The writer has been Spending some
spare time in wrestling with the diff
culties of the great problem as they are
presented by Mr.. Moore, and is forced to
confess himself in the dark-aS yet.
But what of that?
The great mathematician Bowditch,
whose tables for the use of navigatorS
have made the ocean safe highway for
ships, at his death left manuscripts
full of computations that often con-
tanned the words, From whence it ap-
pears" etc. But the able mathema-
xr,ln
able papers for publication, when
they came to one of these
''from whences," soon found that days
and weeks of hard work and close study
were before them while proving and ex-
planning the truth Of what seemed so
plain to the greatmaster. Mr.. Moore, like
MIR. BOWditch, seems to tower above
common arithmetic as mountain above
a plain. Consequently, it seems nee
essary to present the question to a
larger and wiser audience, in the hope
that some kind friend or teacher
will come to the rescue and prevent the
acknowledgment of utter failure to COM
prehend the solution of problem that
gives promise of being such a good
thing for the world. TO get rid of the
old system of approximation to thetruth,
and the use OF that long row Of decimalS
which express, in "a tedious and pa
tience-trying way, our Ignorance of the
exact areas OF circles would certainly
make all school boys throw up their
caps and shout in honor of their liber
ator from toll and the headache.
Moore. requests me to put Ia square
inches in a circle, and to give proof of
my work by demonstration of
figures" He gives the demonstration
as follows:
"Half diameter by half cireumfer-
ence is acknowledged by professors of
mathematics as the sureSG mode of
finding the areas OF circles,
Half circumference. ....... 81 5 51s
Half diameter ................ 6 IL
3 sis is T. s......... ..,.. 70 8 1S l 81
144 o o
extract square root-12. The answer
This may be very plain to the emf
nent author of this pamphlet entitled
''Geometrical Science-The Great Prob
lem Solved at Last" but not so to all
his readers and students. The shalt
circumference of something OF other
seems to be twenty-one inches, five
SlXteenthS OF an lncn, and hVe ana one
third siXteenths of the sixteenth of an
inch. The multiplication of the
above number by six inches and
twelve sixteenthS, and the addi-
tons below are somewhat peculiar,
to say the least. Who will explain the
process and demonstrate its truthP Let
him come forward like little man and
receive an abundance Of thanks and
of fhn xJnpl- fhof will nj
labor to the happy owner of it.