Impossible Constructions
The following three construction problems, whose origins date from Greek antiquity, were considered impossible in the sense that they could not be solved using only the compass and straightedge. With modern mathematical methods this "consideration" of the Greek mathematicians can be proved to be correct. The problems themselves, however, are doable, and the Greeks knew how to solve them, without the constraint of working only with straightedge and compass.
Read more about this topic: Compass And Straightedge Constructions
Famous quotes containing the word impossible:
“I can entertain the proposition that life is a metaphor for boxing—for one of those bouts that go on and on, round following round, jabs, missed punches, clinches, nothing determined, again the bell and again and you and your opponent so evenly matched it’s impossible not to see that your opponent is you.... Life is like boxing in many unsettling respects. But boxing is only like boxing.”
—Joyce Carol Oates (b. 1938)