Napoleon's Theorem/Historical Note
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Historical Note on Napoleon's Theorem
The attribution of Napoleon's Theorem to Napoleon Bonaparte is in fact dubious.
An early appearance is by William Rutherford in $1825$.
An earlier appearance is in one of the papers for candidates for the Gold Medal in the General Examination of the University of Dublin in October $1820$.
It is known that Napoleon Bonaparte did have some understanding of mathematics, so the suggestion that he may have discovered this theorem is not impossible.
It is rediscovered over and over again by enthusiastic amateurs.
Sources
- 1991: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Geometry ... (previous) ... (next): Napoleon's theorem
- 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Napoleon's theorem