Why was Wantzel overlooked for a century?The changing importance of an impossibility result

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Standard

Why was Wantzel overlooked for a century?The changing importance of an impossibility result. / Lützen, Jesper.

I: Historia Mathematica, Bind 36, 2009, s. 374-394.

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt

Harvard

Lützen, J 2009, 'Why was Wantzel overlooked for a century?The changing importance of an impossibility result', Historia Mathematica, bind 36, s. 374-394.

APA

Lützen, J. (2009). Why was Wantzel overlooked for a century?The changing importance of an impossibility result. Historia Mathematica, 36, 374-394.

Vancouver

Lützen J. Why was Wantzel overlooked for a century?The changing importance of an impossibility result. Historia Mathematica. 2009;36:374-394.

Author

Lützen, Jesper. / Why was Wantzel overlooked for a century?The changing importance of an impossibility result. I: Historia Mathematica. 2009 ; Bind 36. s. 374-394.

Bibtex

@article{8b47ef20cd3d11dea1f3000ea68e967b,
title = "Why was Wantzel overlooked for a century?The changing importance of an impossibility result",
abstract = "The duplication of a cube and the trisection of an angle are two of the most famous geometric constructionproblems formulated in ancient Greece. In 1837 Pierre Wantzel (1814-1848) proved that the problems cannotbe constructed by ruler and compass. Today he is credited for this contribution in all general treatises of thehistory of mathematics. However, his proof was hardly noticed by his contemporaries and during the followingcentury his name was almost completely forgotten. In this paper I shall analyze the reasons for this neglect andargue that it was primarily due to the lack of importance attributed to such impossibility results at the time.",
author = "Jesper L{\"u}tzen",
year = "2009",
language = "English",
volume = "36",
pages = "374--394",
journal = "Historia Mathematica",
issn = "0315-0860",
publisher = "Academic Press",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Why was Wantzel overlooked for a century?The changing importance of an impossibility result

AU - Lützen, Jesper

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - The duplication of a cube and the trisection of an angle are two of the most famous geometric constructionproblems formulated in ancient Greece. In 1837 Pierre Wantzel (1814-1848) proved that the problems cannotbe constructed by ruler and compass. Today he is credited for this contribution in all general treatises of thehistory of mathematics. However, his proof was hardly noticed by his contemporaries and during the followingcentury his name was almost completely forgotten. In this paper I shall analyze the reasons for this neglect andargue that it was primarily due to the lack of importance attributed to such impossibility results at the time.

AB - The duplication of a cube and the trisection of an angle are two of the most famous geometric constructionproblems formulated in ancient Greece. In 1837 Pierre Wantzel (1814-1848) proved that the problems cannotbe constructed by ruler and compass. Today he is credited for this contribution in all general treatises of thehistory of mathematics. However, his proof was hardly noticed by his contemporaries and during the followingcentury his name was almost completely forgotten. In this paper I shall analyze the reasons for this neglect andargue that it was primarily due to the lack of importance attributed to such impossibility results at the time.

M3 - Journal article

VL - 36

SP - 374

EP - 394

JO - Historia Mathematica

JF - Historia Mathematica

SN - 0315-0860

ER -

ID: 15685150