2min chapter

In Our Time cover image

Pi

In Our Time

CHAPTER

The Death of Circle Squarers

To square a circle means to make a square that has the same area as a circle. To make it, as Eleanor said, with Euclidean tools that is a straight edge and a compass. Any construction with straight edge and compass can be expressed by a polynomial equation. An equation which has x's and numbers and the numbers are whole numbers. That didn't start people from going on trying and they still do. But we're moving towards the idea that numbers are abstract approximations to a particular sort of truth rather than exact delineations of an outer reality. As Bob said, I think it's a question of our notation system for numbers.

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