Recent content by Bill Crean

I seemed to have stirred up a hornets' nest. On an Easter day as well. I used the balloon analogy as Stephen Hawking used it. If the universe has no centre then it is infinite, but this disagrees with Stephen Hawking's Big Bang theory. However, I concede that the observable universe is not...

I have read most of the discussion up to date and believe that the question of the whereabouts of the centre of the universe is in danger of joining such topics as religion, politics and global warming by manmade carbon dioxide emissions, in that we are unlikely to get to the bottom of the...

There are 4 diagonals in a cube. Section the cube such that you have 6 equal square based pyramids, formed by the 6 faces and the 4 diagonals. Now consider one of the pyramids. Let ABCD denote the 4 corners of the square base and P denote the apex of the pyramid, which is at the centre of the...

Yes, there is another method of solving the problem, as given by a silly old engineering colleague: Fill the holes in the cube with a liquid and then pour the liquid into a measuring cylinder!

There is nothing wrong with using calculus, of course. When I was given the problem (40 years ago) the statement of the problem indicated no advance maths. or computer programs to be used (there were no PCs then in any case). I think that the calculus method must be much shorter than mine...

Did anyone spot my error - L^3 = 27, and so Zamaster's formula gives 21.34563009 (= 21.35 to 2 dec. places) for L=3 and D=1. This means that the Zamaster's formula yields the volume remaining after the holes are drilled, because my formula yields the volume removed namely 5.65 (2 dec. places)...

Zamaster's formula seems promising, but Zamaster does not state whether the formula is for the volume of the material removed from the cube or the volume remaining. For the case L=3 and D=1, we can easily calculate the volume of 6 cylinders with diametre = 1 and height = 1. It is of course...

There is no doubt numerous ways to solve this problem. When I was given it in 1970, there was a stipulation to only use elementary maths, that is, no calculus. I have just gone into my attic to find my old manuscript of the solution. With all the hand drawings it covers many A4 pages. I will...

In my previous post I forgot to give the numerical answer to the 3 cylinder problem presented; it is about 0.94 cubic units.

I have just scanned the above set of posts. I have applied simple tests to prove many have wrong answers. The Steinmetz solid is not the solution to the question asked. Try the following tips: for convenience chose the radius of the 3 intersecting cylinders as 0.5 units. This means the...