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Ten Decimal Places Of π Are Sufficient To Give The Circumference Of The Earth To A Fraction Of An Inch, And Thirty Decimal Places Would Give The Circumference Of The Visible Universe To A Quantity Imperceptible To The Most Powerful Microscope.

-Simon Newcomb

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Ten Decimal Places Of

Simon Newcomb

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Ten Decimal Places Of π Are Sufficient To Give The Circumference Of The Earth To A Fraction Of An Inch, And Thirty Decimal Places Would Give The Circumference Of The Visible Universe To A Quantity Imperceptible To The Most Powerful Microscope.

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The Reports Of The Eclipse Parties Not Only Described The Scientific Observations In Great Detail, But Also The Travels And Experiences, And Were Sometimes Marked By A Piquancy Not Common In Official Documents.

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Flight By Machines Heavier Than Air Is Unpractical And Insignificant, If Not Utterly Impossible.

The Demonstration That No Possible Combination Of Known Substances, Known Forms Of Machinery And Known Forms Of Force, Can Be United In A Practical Machine By Which Men Shall Fly Along Distances Through The Air, Seems To The Writer As Complete As It Is Possible For The Demonstration To Be.

One Hardly Knows Where, In The History Of Science, To Look For An Important Movement That Had Its Effective Start In So Pure And Simple An Accident As That Which Led To The Building Of The Great Washington Telescope, And Went On To The Discovery Of The Satellites Of Mars.

When About Fifteen I Once Made A Great Scandal By Taking Out My Knife In Prayer Meeting And Assaulting A Young Man Who, While I Was Kneeling Down During The Prayer, Stood Above Me And Squeezed My Neck.

As The Existence Of A Corps Of Professors Of Mathematics Is Peculiar To Our Navy, As Well As An Apparent, Perhaps A Real, Anomaly, Some Account Of It May Be Of Interest.

What We Now Call School Training, The Pursuit Of Fixed Studies At Stated Hours Under The Constant Guidance Of A Teacher, I Could Scarcely Be Said To Have Enjoyed.

Quite Likely The Twentieth Century Is Destined To See The Natural Forces Which Will Enable Us To Fly From Continent To Continent With A Speed Far Exceeding That Of A Bird.

As Years Passed Away I Have Formed The Habit Of Looking Back Upon That Former Self As Upon Another Person, The Remembrance Of Whose Emotions Has Been A Solace In Adversity And Added Zest To The Enjoyment Of Prosperity.

I Finally Reached The Conclusion That Mathematics Was The Study I Was Best Fitted To Follow, Though I Did Not Clearly See In What Way I Should Turn The Subject To Account.

The Mathematician Of To-day Admits That He Can Neither Square The Circle, Duplicate The Cube Or Trisect The Angle. May Not Our Mechanicians, In Like Manner, Be Ultimately Forced To Admit That Aerial Flight Is One Of That Great Class Of Problems With Which Men Can Never Cope... I Do Not Claim That This Is A Necessary Conclusion From Any Past Experience. But I Do Think That Success Must Await Progress Of A Different Kind From That Of Invention.

In 1858 I Received The Degree Of D. S. From The Lawrence Scientific School, And Thereafter Remained On The Rolls Of The University As A Resident Graduate.

So Far As The Economic Condition Of Society And The General Mode Of Living And Thinking Were Concerned, I Might Claim To Have Lived In The Time Of The American Revolution.

My Father Followed, During Most Of His Life, The Precarious Occupation Of A Country School Teacher.

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The Result Was That, If It Happened To Clear Off After A Cloudy Evening, I Frequently Arose From My Bed At Any Hour Of The Night Or Morning And Walked Two Miles To The Observatory To Make Some Observation Included In The Programme.

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I Was Taught The Alphabet By My Aunts Before I Was Four Years Old, And I Was Reading The Bible In Class And Beginning Geography When I Was Six.

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I Had Not Yet Gotten Into The World Of Light. But I Felt As One Who, Standing Outside, Could Knock Against The Wall And Hear An Answering Knock From Within.

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