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[About Thomas
Hobbes:]
He was
40 years old before
he looked on
geometry; which
happened
accidentally. Being
in a gentleman's
library, Euclid's
Elements lay
open, and "twas the
47 El. libri
I" [Pythagoras'
Theorem]. He read
the proposition. "By
God," sayd he, "this
is impossible." So
he read the
demonstration of it,
which referred him
back to such a
proposition; which
proposition he read.
That referred him
back to another,
which he also read.
Et sic
deinceps, that
at last he was
demonstratively
convinced of that
trueth. This made
him in love with
geometry.
In O. L. Dick (ed.), Brief Lives, Oxford University Press, 1960, p. 604.
Loci: Convergence
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Mathematical Treasures
Austrian measuring rod
Austrian measuring rod for an ell. The rod bears the date 1732. The ell as a unit of measure evolved from the ancient cubit, the distance from the tip of a man’s middle finger to the “point” of his elbow. At this time, the ell was still used as a measure in the tailoring business. Its exact length varied considerably among European cities. This one is approximately 26” long, more exactly 65.8cm. This rod is particularly interesting due to its curious indication of fractional divisions.