History
Hippocrates wanted to solve the classic problem of squaring the circle, i.e. constructing a square by means of straightedge and compass, having the same area as a given circle. He proved that the lune bounded by the arcs labeled E and F in the figure has the same area as does triangle ABO. This afforded some hope of solving the circle-squaring problem, since the lune is bounded only by arcs of circles. Heath concludes that, in proving his result, Hippocrates was also the first to prove that the area of a disk is proportional to the square of its diameter.
Hippocrates' book on geometry in which this result appears, Elements, has been lost, but may have formed the model for Euclid's Elements. Hippocrates' proof was preserved through the History of Geometry compiled by Eudemus of Rhodes, which has also not survived, but which was excerpted by Simplicius of Cilicia in his commentary on Aristotle's Physics.
Not until 1882, with Ferdinand von Lindemann's proof of the transcendence of π, was squaring the circle proved to be impossible.
Read more about this topic: Lune Of Hippocrates
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