THAT " HANGED BRIDGE.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 34, 27 June 1877, Page 2

THAT " HANGED BRIDGE.

[TO THB BDITOB lIMNGAHVA THUS.} Sis,— ln this morning's issae of the Herald appears a letter from '* Euclid * (modernised) questioning my orthography of the wardAsinorum, and in language not in keeping with the Alexandrian School, with an editorial toot-note asserting that problem and proposition were synonymous, meaning one and the same thing j or that one may be substituted for the other. To the one I reply that tboofk making no pretensions to classical attainments, the word is so familar, making due allowance for typographical errors- it could have been correctly spelled w*fc one's eyes shut; and to tbe other I deny the sssertion, and challenge him to produce a single authority from Dr Simp* sod, the original translator, to the pre» sent, where one is substituted for tbe other. It could not be, for though every problem is a proposition j vnnf proposition is not a problem. Emj proposition in Euclid is either a theorem or problem. It is a problem when some geometrical construction is required to be effected ; and a theorem wuen some geometrical property is to be deaoosfrated. A problem consists of the #ofo and the quaesita, and r&jup* solution ; while the theorem " consists of the hypothesis and the predicate and requires demonstration. These latter terms when applied to the Pont Asinorum will oe found to coincide with the terms of that proposition in every particular; and therefore they are identical. With those few remarks, str, I snovld be content to dismiss the subject for the present; but as Mr Euclid, has descended to tbelerel of the mire, I cannot conclude better than by gmog a rough translation of au old Lalin couplet, which I consider quite apposite U> Mr Euclid et hoc genut omne. 1 1 Oflca knew an ass and an ass knew me ; But I nevw knew an ass, till I knew the* I am Ac, Mik nr thb Chub. Eeefton, Jane 26<n, 1877.