Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baxter, Thomas (fl.1732)

BAXTER, THOMAS (fl. 1732), pseudo-mathematician, was the author of ‘The Circle squared,’ (1732). Starting from the shameless assumption that ‘if the diameter of a circle be unity or one, the circumference of that circle will be 3.0625,’ the writer deduces some fourteen problems relative to circles. With more brevity, but equal absurdity, he treats of the cone and ellipse.

[Watt's Bibl. Brit.; De Morgan's Budget of Paradoxes.]

F. Y. E.