Solved cryptogram
Cutting an arbitrary angle into three equal parts with compass and straightedge is impossible.
Mathematics Facts, sourced to Wolfram MathWorld.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 80 letters over 20 different ones, graded medium.
Or go to the puzzle’s own page first.
What it means
The Greeks left this open and amateurs still send in solutions. Wantzel closed it in 1836 by translating the tools into algebra: a compass and a straightedge can construct only lengths reachable by square roots, and trisecting sixty degrees requires solving a cubic that has no such solution. Bisecting an angle is easy, and trisecting is not, and the difference is not one of cleverness.
The claim comes from Wolfram MathWorld.
- SourceWolfram MathWorld
- CollectionMathematics Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length80 letters, 20 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequencesmedium, 71 letters
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About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
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