Comments on: Squaring the circle

By: Walt Pohl

Walt Pohl — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 23:46:06 +0000

Jeremy Gray has another book that's really good (though probably more technical than the book on non-Euclidean geometry), called Linear Differential Equations and Group Theory from Riemann to Poincare. It shows how geometric functions of a complex variable naturally are. By telling the story historically, it reads like the mathematical analogue of a mystery novel. At first you only see glimpses of what's going on, and then bigger and bigger hints, until finally everything is revealed.

By: James Wimberley

James Wimberley — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 21:40:08 +0000

The Halsted translation of Bolyai’s “Theory of absolute space” is on the Web at http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/b/broker20/broker20?verb=Display&protocol=CGM&ver=1.0&identifier=oai:lib.umich.edu:ACA7845.0001.001

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 15:29:43 +0000

am never forget the day my first book is published.
Every chapter I stole from somewhere else.
Index I copy from old Vladivostok telephone directory.
This book was sensational!
Pravda – well, Pravda – Pravda said: (Russian double-talk)
It stinks.
But Izvestia! Izvestia said: (Russian double-talk)
It stinks.
Metro-Goldwyn-Moskva buys movie rights for six million rubles,
Changing title to ‘The Eternal Triangle’,
With Brigitte Bardot playing part of hypotenuse.

By: Jacques Distler

Jacques Distler — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 15:04:05 +0000

Since you don't accept trackbacks, look here.

By: Creative Commonist

Creative Commonist — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 11:24:11 +0000

Bolyai János
The theory of space / János Bolyai ; With introduction, comments, and addenda edited by Ferenc Kárteszi ; Supplement by Barna Szénássy ;
Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1987
This is an English translation of the Latin original.
Bonola, Roberto
Non-Euclidean geometry, a critical and historical study of its developments. / Bonola, Roberto Carslaw, H. S, Halsted, G. B, Bolyai, John, Lobachevski, Nicholas
Translation with additional appendices by H. S. Carslaw. Supplement containing the G. B. Halsted translations of “The science of absolute space’’ by John Bolyai and “The theory of parallels’’ by Nicholas Lobachevski.
Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1955
You may contact the Mathematical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences: math@renyi.hu

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 11:12:35 +0000

Can someone point me in the right direction, please?

I have a friend in Minsk, who has a friend in Pinsk…

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 10:26:05 +0000

And Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name!

By: dsquared

dsquared — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 09:20:49 +0000

I can’t believe that those pikers Gauss and Bolyai got their name on “Gauss-Bolyai-Lobachevsky space”. One man deserves the credit …

By: James Wimberley

James Wimberley — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 07:20:42 +0000

There must be an academic ethnic joke about Hungarians in this, on the lines of “a Hungarian is someone who goes into a revolving door behind you and comes out ahead of you.”

By: ogged

ogged — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 00:46:51 +0000

We have to do all the work, don't we? The link in the comments at John & Belle's goes to this page, where the claim is cited to a book by Jeremy Gray.

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 00:34:38 +0000

Hmm, a library, now there’s an idea. But I’d still need the name of a book.

By: Kevin Donoghue

Kevin Donoghue — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 23:57:37 +0000

Looks like a library might be the best bet (the original was in Latin though):

“Bolyai gives also … a geometrical construction, in hyperbolic space, for the quadrature of the circle….”

http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/CRE_DAH/CRP.html