[Update: Dan Lawson has proved the theorem without trigonometry. Thanks, Dan!] I spent a good chunk of last week reading about David Johnson Leisk (1906–1975), who is better known by his nom-de-plum Crockett Johnson. Johnson is most well known as the author of Harold and the Purple Crayon, a children’s book from 1955, and its sequels. Johnson was also the…
Tag: impossibility problems
Puzzler: a squarable region from Leonardo da Vinci
It is famously impossible to square the circle. That is, given a circle, it is impossible, using only a compass and straightedge, to construct a square having the same area as the circle. I will let you read elsewhere about the exact rules behind compass and straightedge constructions. The punchline is that if you begin…
