Ladies' Diary/Largest Cylinder from given Cone/Historical Note
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Historical Note on Largest Cylinder from given Cone
This often-cited problem was raised by Mrs. Barbara Sidway, about whom little is known.
David Wells informs us in his Curious and Interesting Puzzles of $1992$ that the solution as given here is "something of a cheat", as it refers the reader to to one of Mr. Hutton's texbooks.
This is puzzling, however, as this problem is cited as appearing in $1714$, and Charles Hutton was not born until $1737$.
It was often the case that questions to The Ladies' Diary were taken from already-published sources.
Sources
- 1992: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Puzzles ... (previous) ... (next): The Ladies' Diary or Woman's Almanac, $\text {1704}$ – $\text {1841}$: $139$