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lelogram, when its diagonals bisect each other: and when its diagonals divide it into four triangles, which are equal, two and two, viz. those which have the same vertical angles.

79. If two straight lines join the extremities of two parallel straight lines, but not towards the same parts, when are the joining lines equal, and when are they unequal?

80. If either diameter of a four-sided figure divide it into two equal triangles, is the figure necessarily a parallelogram? Prove your answer. 81. Shew how to divide one of the parallelograms in Euc. 1. 35, by straight lines so that the parts when properly arranged shall make up the other parallelogram.

82. Distinguish between equal triangles and equivalent triangles, and give examples from the First Book of Euclid.

83. What is meant by the locus of a point? Adduce instances of loci from the first Book of Euclid.

84. How is it shewn that equal triangles upon the same base or equal bases have equal altitudes, whether they are situated on the same or opposite sides of the same straight line?

85. In Euc. 1. 37, 38, if the triangles are not towards the same parts, shew that the straight line joining the vertices of the triangles is bisected by the line containing the bases.

86. If the complements (fig. Euc. 1. 43) be squares, determine their relation to the whole parallelogram.

87. What is meant by a parallelogram being applied to a straight line? 88. Is the proof of Euc. 1. 45, perfectly general?

89. Define a square without including superfluous conditions, and explain the mode of constructing a square upon a given straight line in conformity with such a definition.

90. The sum of the angles of a square is equal to four right angles. Is the converse true? If not, why?

91. Conceiving a square to be a figure bounded by four equal straight lines not necessarily in the same plane, what condition respecting the angles is necessary to complete the definition?

92. In Euclid 1. 47, why is it necessary to prove that one side of each square described upon each of the sides containing the right angle, should be in the same straight line with the other side of the triangle?

93. On what assumption is an analogy shewn to exist between the product of two equal numbers and the surface of a square?

94. Is the triangle whose sides are 3, 4, 5 right-angled, or not? 95. Can the side and diagonal of a square be represented simultaneously by any finite numbers?

96. By means of Euc. 1. 47, the square roots of the natural numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4, &c. may be represented by straight lines.

97. If the square on the hypotenuse in the fig. Euc. 1. 47, be described on the other side of it: shew from the diagram how the squares on the two sides of the triangle may be made to cover exactly the square on the hypotenuse.

98. If Euclid 11. 2, be assumed, enunciate the form in which Euc. 1. 47 may be expressed.

99. Classify all the properties of triangles and parallelograms, proved in the First Book of Euclid.

100. Mention any propositions in Book 1. which are included in more general ones which follow.

ON THE ANCIENT GEOMETRICAL ANALYSIS.

SYNTHESIS, or the method of composition, is a mode of reasoning which begins with something given, and ends with something required, either to be done or to be proved. This may be termed a direct process, as it leads from principles to consequences.

Analysis, or the method of resolution, is the reverse of synthesis, and thus it may be considered an indirect process, a method of reasoning from consequences to principles.

The synthetic method is pursued by Euclid in his Elements of Geometry. He commences with certain assumed principles, and proceeds to the solution of problems and the demonstration of theorems by undeniable and successive inferences from them.

The Geometrical Analysis was a process employed by the ancient Geometers, both for the discovery of the solution of problems and for the investigation of the truth of theorems. In the analysis of a problem, the quæsita, or what is required to be done, is supposed to have been effected, and the consequences are traced by a series of geometrical constructions and reasonings, till at length they terminate in the data of the problem, or in some previously demonstrated or admitted truth, whence the direct solution of the problem is deduced.

In the Synthesis of a problem, however, the last consequence of the analysis is assumed as the first step of the process, and by proceeding in a contrary order through the several steps of the analysis until the process terminate in the quæsita, the solution of the problem is effected.

But if, in the analysis, we arrive at a consequence which contradicts any truth demonstrated in the Elements, or which is inconsistent with the data of the problem, the problem must be impossible: and further, if in certain relations of the given magnitudes the construction be possible, while in other relations it is impossible, the discovery of these relations will become a necessary part of the solution of the problem.

In the analysis of a theorem, the question to be determined, is, whether by the application of the geometrical truths proved in the Elements, the predicate is consistent with the hypothesis. This point is ascertained by assuming the predicate to be true, and by deducing the successive consequences of this assumption combined with proved geometrical truths, till they terminate in the hypothesis of the theorem or some demonstrated truth. The theorem will be proved synthetically by retracing, in order, the steps of the investigation pursued in the analysis, till they terminate in the predicate, which was assumed in the analysis. This process will constitute the demonstration of the theorem.

If the assumption of the truth of the predicate in the analysis lead to some consequence which is inconsistent with any demonstrated truth, the false conclusion thus arrived at, indicates the falsehood of the predicate; and by reversing the process of the analysis, it may be demonstrated, that the theorem cannot be true.

It may here be remarked, that the geometrical analysis is more extensively useful in discovering the solution of problems than for investigating the demonstration of theorems.

From the nature of the subject, it must be at once obvious, that no general rules can be prescribed, which will be found applicable in all cases, and infallibly lead to the solution of every problem. The conditions of problems must suggest what constructions may be possible; and the consequences which follow from these constructions and the assumed solution, will shew the possibility or impossibility of arriving at some known property consistent with the data of the problem.

Though the data of a problem may be given in magnitude and position, certain ambiguities will arise, if they are not properly restricted. Two points may be considered as situated on the same side, or one on each side of a given line; and there may be two lines drawn from a given point making equal angles with a line given in position; and to avoid ambiguity, it must be stated on which side of the line the angle is to be formed.

A problem is said to be determinate when, with the prescribed conditions, it admits of one definite solution; the same construction which may be made on the other side of any given line, not being considered a different solution: and a problem is said to be indeterminate when it admits of more than one definite solution. This latter circumstance arises from the data not absolutely fixing, but merely restricting the quæsita, leaving certain points or lines not fixed in one position only. The number of given conditions may be insufficient for a single determinate solution; or relations may subsist among some of the given conditions from which one or more of the remaining given conditions may be deduced.

If the base of a right-angled triangle be given, and also the difference of the squares on the hypotenuse and perpendicular, the triangle is indeterminate. For though apparently here are three things given, the right angle, the base, and the difference of the squares on the hypotenuse and perpendicular, it is obvious that these three apparent conditions are in fact reducible to two: for since in a right-angled triangle, the sum of the squares on the base and on the perpendicular, is equal to the square on the hypotenuse, it follows that the difference of the squares on the hypotenuse and perpendicular, is equal to the square on the base of the triangle, and therefore the base is known from the difference of the squares on the hypotenuse and perpendicular being known. The conditions therefore are insufficient to determine a right-angled triangle; an indefinite number of triangles may be found with the prescribed conditions, whose vertices will lie in the line which is perpendicular to the base.

If a problem relate to the determination of a single point, and the data be sufficient to determine the position of that point, the problem is determinate: but if one or more of the conditions be omitted, the data which remain may be sufficient for the determination of more than one point, each of which satisfies the conditions of the problem; in that case, the problem is indeterminate and in general, such points are found to be situated in some line, and hence such line is called the locus of the point which satisfies the conditions of the problem.

If any two given points A and B (fig. Euc. IV. 5.) be joined by a straight line AB, and this line be bisected in D, then if a perpendicular be drawn from the point of bisection, it is manifest that a circle

described with any point in the perpendicular as a center, and a radius equal to its distance from one of the given points, will pass through the other point, and the perpendicular will be the locus of all the circles which can be described passing through the two given points.

Again, if a third point Cbe taken, but not in the same straight line with the other two, and this point be joined with the first point A; then the perpendicular drawn from the bisection E of this line will be the locus of the centers of all circles which pass through the first and third points A and C. But the perpendicular at the bisection of the first and second points A and B is the locus of the centers of circles which pass through these two points. Hence the intersection F of these two perpendiculars, will be the center of a circle which passes through the three points and is called the intersection of the two loci. Sometimes this method of solving geometrical problems may be pursued with advantage, by constructing the locus of every two points separately, which are given in the conditions of the problem. In the Geometrical Exercises which follow, only those local problems are given where the locus is either a straight line or a circle.

Whenever the quæsitum is a point, the problem on being rendered indeterminate, becomes a locus, whether the deficient datum be of the essential or of the accidental kind. When the quæsitum is a straight line or a circle, (which were the only two loci admitted into the ancient Elementary Geometry) the problem may admit of an accidentally indeterminate case; but will not invariably or even very frequently do so. This will be the case, when the line or circle shall be so far arbitrary in its position, as depends upon the deficiency of a single condition to fix it perfectly; that is, (for instance) one point in the line, or two points in the circle, may be determined from the given conditions, but the remaining one is indeterminate from the accidental relations among the data of the problem.

Determinate Problems become indeterminate by the merging of some one datum in the results of the remaining ones. This may arise in three different ways; first, from the coincidence of two points; secondly, from that of two straight lines; and thirdly, from that of two circles. These, further, are the only three ways in which this accidental coincidence of data can produce this indeterminateness; that is, in other words, convert the problem into a Porism.

In the original Greek of Euclid's Elements, the corollaries to the propositions are called porisms (Topioμaтα); but this scarcely explains the nature of porisms, as it is manifest that they are different from simple deductions from the demonstrations of propositions. Some analogy, however, we may suppose them to have to the porisms or corollaries in the Elements. Pappus (Coll. Math. Lib. VII. pref.) informs us that Euclid wrote three books on Porisms. He defines " а porism to be something between a problem and a theorem, or that in which something is proposed to be investigated." Dr. Simson, to whom is due the merit of having restored the porisms of Euclid, gives the following definition of that class of propositions: "Porisma est propositio in qua proponitur demonstrare rem aliquam, vel plures datas esse, cui, vel quibus, ut et cuilibet ex rebus innumeris, non quidem, datis, sed quæ ad ea quæ data sunt eandem habent relationem, convenire osten

dendum est affectionem quandam communem in propositione descriptam." That is, "A Porism is a proposition in which it is proposed to demonstrate that some one thing, or more things than one, are given, to which, as also to each of innumerable other things, not given indeed, but which have the same relation to those which are given, it is to be shewn that there belongs some common affection described in the proposition." Professor Dugald Stewart defines a porism to be "A proposition affirming the possibility of finding one or more of the conditions of an indeterminate theorem." Professor Playfair in a paper (from which the following account is taken) on Porisms, printed in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, for the year 1792, defines a porism to be "A proposition affirming the possibility of finding such conditions as will render a certain problem indeterminate or capable of innumerable solutions.”

It may without much difficulty be perceived that this definition. represents a porism as almost the same as an indeterminate problem. There is a large class of indeterminate problems which are, in general, loci, and satisfy certain defined conditions. Every indeterminate problem containing a locus may be made to assume the form of a porism, but not the converse. Porisms are of a more general nature than indeterminate problems which involve a locus.

The ancient geometers appear to have undertaken the solution of problems with a scrupulous and minute attention, which would scarcely allow any of the collateral truths to escape their observation. They never considered a problem as solved till they had distinguished all its varieties, and evolved separately every different case that could occur, carefully distinguishing whatever change might arise in the construction from any change that was supposed to take place among the magnitudes which were given. This cautious method of proceeding soon led them to see that there were circumstances in which the solution of a problem would cease to be possible; and this always happened when one of the conditions of the data was inconsistent with the rest. Such instances would occur in the simplest problems; but in the analysis of more complex problems, they must have remarked that their constructions failed, for a reason directly contrary to that assigned. Instances would be found where the lines, which, by their intersection, were to determine the thing sought, instead of intersecting one another, as they did in general, or of not meeting at all, would coincide with one another entirely, and consequently leave the question unresolved. The confusion thus arising would soon be cleared up, by observing, that a problem before determined by the intersection of two lines, would now become capable of an indefinite number of solutions. This was soon perceived to arise from one of the conditions of the problem involving another, or from two parts of the data becoming one, so that there was not left a sufficient number of independent conditions to confine the problem to a single solution, or any determinate number of solutions. It was not difficult afterwards to perceive, that these cases of problems formed very curious propositions, of an indeterminate nature between problems and theorems, and that they admitted of being enunciated separately. It was to such propositions so enunciated that the ancient geometers gave the name of Porisms. Besides, it will be found, that some problems are possible within

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