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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.
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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

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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