I’ve decided to learn algebraic geometry. Or at least more algebraic geometry—I’m not starting from zero. But I’m still sampling the appetizers; I’m using Fulton’s Algebraic Curves and Kendig’s A Guide to Plane Algebraic Curves as my initial texts. Eventually I’d like to understand schemes, but that’s dessert; I plan on making a long, leisurely meal of it, with plenty of time savoring examples and history, and chewing proofs to extract all the flavor. (Can you tell I’m writing this before lunch?)
Monthly Archives: March 2020
A Fragment From the Archives
The ancient Greeks grappled in vain with three geometrical problems: the duplication of the cube, the trisection of the angle, and the squaring of the circle. What drove them to these endeavors? Divine inspiration? Well, yes—of a sort. The origin of the duplication of the cube is well-known. The story behind the trisection of the angle however has been lost to history—until now.
Filed under Bagatelles
Diagonal Argument 