La actitud de cuadradores y académicos en Barcelona durante el siglo XIX

Abstract

The doubt surrounding the resolution of three classical problems of Greek geometry (doubling the cube, trisecting an angle and squaring the circle) that had puzzled mathematicians for centuries was cleared up in the XIX Century. In 1837, Wantzell demonstrated that it was only possible to solve with ruler and compass the problems whose resolution entailed at most an algebraic equation of second degree. As a result, doubling the cube and trisecting an angle was impossible using Euclidean tools. Nevertheless, the doubt concerning squaring the circle took a little longer given the specific nature of . Lambert in the late XVIII Century proved that p was irrational, and a hundred years later Lindemann showed that this number was also transcendental. Both these characteristics demonstrated that the problem of squaring the circle was unsolvable with ruler and compass. During this time, some enthusiasts endeavoured to solve squaring the circle with ruler and compass and presented their findings at different scientific institutions. This paper examines the reports presented at the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences of Barcelona and at the Board of Commerce of Catalonia in order to gain some insight into the attitudes adopted by the enthusiasts and the academicians.