Abstract
THIS book appears to compare very favourably with most English works of its class. The greater part of it deals with practical solid geometry, including the method of indexed plans; this subject is treated in a much more methodical way than is usually the case, and the authors very properly call attention from time to time to constructions which are of a fundamental character. It is a pity they did not go further, and clearly distinguish throughout the book the worked examples which involve new points of theory from those which merely illustrate general constructions previously given. The directions for making cardboard models ought to be very useful to the student; and the constructions are explained in such a way as to make the reasons for them intelligible. The section on plane geometry is distinctly above the average; in particular, there is a very interesting discussion of the description of an ellipse by means of a paper trammel. Of graphical statics only a brief outline is given; but it is useful enough so far as it goes. There is one error to which attention ought to be drawn: on p. 342 it is stated that the tangent plane to a surface at an anticlastic point cuts the surface in a curve with a double point where there are two inflexions: this is not generally the case, and, in fact, the anchor-ring gives an example of the contrary. Here the section is a bicircular quartic which has a real ordinary node when the tangent plane cuts the ring, and is not parallel to the polar axis.
Practical Plane and Solid Geometry for Advanced Students; including Graphic Statics.
By J. Harrison G. A. Baxandall. Pp. xii + 558. (Macmillan and Co., 1889.)
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Practical Plane and Solid Geometry for Advanced Students; including Graphic Statics . Nature 61, 101 (1899). https://doi.org/10.1038/061101a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/061101a0