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