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Angle Trisection (Posted on 2002-06-19) Difficulty: 5 of 5
How can you divide an angle into 3 equal angles? You may only use a straightedge and a compass to achieve this.

(This means : You have an angle A, you divide Angle A into 3 Angles B,C,D. And B=C=D=A/3)

Note: vohonam clarified that the problem actually only gives you a straightedge, not a ruler.

See The Solution Submitted by vohonam    
Rating: 3.8889 (9 votes)

Comments: ( Back to comment list | You must be logged in to post comments.)
re(5): The next problem after this... | Comment 14 of 29 |
(In reply to re(4): The next problem after this... by levik)

It's Fermat's Last Theorem.
Fermat scribbled it in the margin of a book he was writing (back in the mid 17th-century), along with the comment "I've found a remarkable proof of this fact, but there is not enough space in the margin to write it."
Three and a half centuries passed and no-one was able to prove it. Until less than 10 years ago, when Andrew Wiles, a Cambridge mathematician, proved it - the solution he has is apparently about 150 pages in length and uses mathematical techniques not available even in the 19th century, let alone in the 17th.
So still no-one knows how Fermat believed to have solved it so simply...
  Posted by Nick Reed on 2002-06-20 11:07:11

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