Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T19:29:21.534Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Note on Bechmann's approximate construction of π, suggested by a deleted sketch in Villard de Honnecourt's manuscript

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Garry J. Tee
Garry J. Tee
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The renowned notebook of the twelfth-century architect Villard de Honnecourt contains some deleted diagrams, which have been studied by Roland Bechmann. An infra-red photograph of a page revealing an erased drawing of a pointed arch is reproduced as Fig. 25, a redrawn diagram is given as Fig. 26 and an enhanced version (with supplementary constructions) is given as Fig. 27. That enhanced version includes a simple geometrical construction of a line AE, with the radius of each of the semi-circles labelled as R.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , July 1989 , pp. 241 - 242
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Bechmann, Roland, ‘About some Technical Sketches of Villard de Honnecourt's Manuscript. New Light on Deleted Diagrams: An Unknown Drawing’, British Journal for the History of Science, (1988), 21, pp. 341–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. Bechmann, , op. cit. (1), page 361.Google Scholar