Page:Amusements in mathematics.djvu/186

174 ellipse. It is correct to say that an oval is an oblong " curvilinear figure, having two unequal

THE TWO STOOLS.

diameters, and bounded by a curve line returning into itself; and this includes the ellipse, but all other figures which in any way approach towards the form of an oval without necessarily having the properties above described are included in the term " oval." Thus the following solution that I give to our puzzle involves the pointed "oval," known among architects as the "vesica piscis."

The dotted lines in the table are given for greater clearness, the cuts being made along the other lines. It will be seen that the eight pieces form two stools of exactly the same size and shape with similar hand-holes. These holes are a trifle longer than those in the schoolmaster's stools, but they are much narrower and of considerably smaller area. Of course 5 and 6 can be cut out in one piece—also 7 and 8—making only six pieces in all. But I wished to keep the same number as in the original story.

When I first gave the above puzzle in a London newspaper, in competition, no correct solution was received, but an ingenious and neatly executed attempt by a man lying in a London infirmary was accompanied by the following note: "Having no compasses here, I was compelled to improvise a pair with the aid of a small penknife, a bit of firewood from a bundle, a piece of tin from a toy engine, a tin tack, and two portions of a hairpin, for points. They are a fairly serviceable pair of compasses, and I shall keep them as a memento of your puzzle."

158.—THE GREAT MONAD.

areas of circles are to each other as the squares of their diameters. If you have a circle 2 in. in diameter and another 4 in. in diameter, then one circle will be four times as great in area as the other, because the square of 4 is four times as great as the square of 2. Now, if we refer to Diagram 1, we see how two equal squares may be cut into four pieces that will form one larger square; from which it is self-evident that any square has just half the area of the square of its diagonal. In Diagram 21 have introduced a square as it often occurs in ancient drawings of the Monad; which was my reason for believing that the Symbol had mathematical meanings, since it will be found to demonstrate the fact that the area of the outer ring or annulus is exactly equal to the area of the inner circle. Compare Diagram 2 with Diagram 1, and you will see that as the square of the diameter C D is double the square of the diameter of the inner circle, or C E, therefore the area of the larger circle is double the area of the smaller one, and consequently the area of the annulus is exactly equal to that of the inner circle. This answers our first question.

In Diagram 3 I show the simple solution to the second question. It is obviously correct, and may be proved by the cutting and superposition of parts. The dotted lines will also serve to make it evident. The third question is solved by the cut C D in Diagram 2, but it remains to be proved that the piece F is really one-half of the Yin or the Yan. This we will