Skip to Main Content

Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society

Published by the American Mathematical Society since 1950, Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society is devoted to shorter research articles in all areas of pure and applied mathematics.

ISSN 1088-6826 (online) ISSN 0002-9939 (print)

The 2020 MCQ for Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society is 0.85.

What is MCQ? The Mathematical Citation Quotient (MCQ) measures journal impact by looking at citations over a five-year period. Subscribers to MathSciNet may click through for more detailed information.

 

Two circles and only a straightedge
HTML articles powered by AMS MathViewer

by Arseniy Akopyan and Roman Fedorov PDF
Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 147 (2019), 91-102 Request permission

Abstract:

We answer a question of David Hilbert: given two circles it is not possible in general to construct their centers using only a straightedge. On the other hand, we give infinitely many families of pairs of circles for which such construction is possible.
References
  • Jacob Steiner, Geometrical Constructions with a Ruler, Given a Fixed Circle with Its Center, Scripta Mathematica Studies, no. 4, Scripta Mathematica, New York, N. Y., 1950. Translated from the First German Edition (1833) by Marion Elizabeth Stark; Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Raymond Clare Archibald. MR 0033029
  • V. J. Baston and F. A. Bostock, On the impossibility of ruler-only constructions, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 110 (1990), no. 4, 1017–1025. MR 1034882, DOI 10.1090/S0002-9939-1990-1034882-3
  • Marcel Berger, Geometry revealed, Springer, Heidelberg, 2010. A Jacob’s ladder to modern higher geometry; Translated from the French by Lester Senechal. MR 2724440, DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-70997-8
  • Detlef Cauer, Über die konstruktion des mittelpunktes eines kreises mit dem lineal allein, Math. Ann. 73 (1912), no. 1, 90–94 (German). MR 1511722, DOI 10.1007/BF01456662
  • Detlef Cauer, Über die Konstruktion des Mittelpunktes eines Kreises mit dem Lineal allein, Math. Ann. 74 (1913), no. 3, 462–464 (German). MR 1511777, DOI 10.1007/BF01456757
  • David S. Dummit and Richard M. Foote, Abstract algebra, 3rd ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2004. MR 2286236
  • Jon Barwise (ed.), The syntax and semantics of infinitary languages, Lecture Notes in Mathematics, No. 72, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-New York, 1968. MR 0234827
  • Christian Gram, A remark on the construction of the centre of a circle by means of the ruler, Math. Scand. 4 (1956), 157–160. MR 79778, DOI 10.7146/math.scand.a-10466
  • Ju. I Manin, On solvability of problems on construction by compass and ruler, Encyclopedia of Elementary Mathematics (P. S. Alexandrov, A. I. Markushevich, and A. Ya Hinchin, eds.), vol. 4, (Geometry), Moscow, Fizmalit, 1963.
  • L. Mascheroni, La geometria del Compasso, Presso gli eredi di Pietro Galeazzi, 1797.
  • Georg Mohr, Euclides danicus, Amsterdam: Jacob van Velsen, 1672.
  • D. D. Mordouhay-Boltovskoy, On geometric constructions with a straightedge, under the condition that an arc of a circle with the center is given, Vestnik Opitnoy Fiziki i Elementarnoy Matematiki (1910), no. 522, 137–146, Russian.
  • Alexander Shen, Hilbert’s error?, to appear in Mathematical Intelligencer, arXiv:1801.04742 (2018).
  • A. S. Smogorzhevskii, The ruler in geometrical constructions, Popular Lectures in Mathematics, vol. 5, Blaisdell Pub. Co., 1961.
  • Jacob Steiner, Die geometrischen Konstructionen, ausgeführt mittelst der geraden Linie und eines festen Kreises, als Lehrgegenstand auf höheren Unterrichts-Anstalten und zur praktischen Benutzung, Ferdinand Dümmler, Berlin, 1833.
  • V. Uspenskiy and A. Shen, Algorithms and Geometric Constructions, arXiv:1805.12579 (2018).
Similar Articles
Additional Information
  • Arseniy Akopyan
  • Affiliation: Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria), Am Campus 1, 3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria
  • MR Author ID: 824468
  • Email: akopjan@gmail.com
  • Roman Fedorov
  • Affiliation: The Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, 301 Thackeray Hall, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260
  • MR Author ID: 696067
  • Email: rmfedorov@gmail.com
  • Received by editor(s): April 10, 2018
  • Published electronically: October 3, 2018
  • Additional Notes: The second author is partially supported by the NSF grant DMS-1764391
  • Communicated by: Alexander Braverman
  • © Copyright 2018 American Mathematical Society
  • Journal: Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 147 (2019), 91-102
  • MSC (2010): Primary 14A25, 14H52, 51M09, 52C30
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1090/proc/14240
  • MathSciNet review: 3876733