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ELEMENTS OF GEOMETRY,

BY

A, M. LEGENDRE,

MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE AND THE LEGION OF HONOUR, OF THE ROYAL
SOCIETY OF LONDON, &c.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH,

FOR

THE USE OF THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY

AT

CAMBRIDGE, NEW ENGLAND,

BY JOHN FARRAR,

PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY

New Edition, Improved and Enlarged

BOSTON:

HILLIARD, GRAY, AND COMPANY.

1833.

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BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-second day of October, A. D. 1830, in the fifty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States of America, JOHN FARRAR, of the said district, has deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words following, to wit:

"Elements of Geometry, by A. M. Legendre, Member of the Institute, and the Legion of Honour, of the Royal Society of London, &c. Translated from the French, for the Use of the Students of the University at Cambridge, New England, by John Farrar, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. New Edition, Improved and Enlarged."

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entit.ed "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned;" and also to an act, entitled "An Act supplementary to an act, entitled 'An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned;" and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

JNO W. DAVIS,

Clerk of the District of Massachusetts.

Stereotyped at the

Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE work of M. LEGENDRE, of which the following is a translation, is thought to unite the advantages of modern discoveries and improvements with the strictness of the ancient method. It has now been in use for a considerable number of years, and its character is sufficiently established. It is generally considered as the most complete and extensive treatise on the elements of geometry which has yet appeared. It has been adopted as the basis of the article on geometry in the fourth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, lately published, and in the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, edited by Dr. Brewster.

In the original, the several parts are called books, and the propositions of each book are numbered after the manner of Euclid. It was thought more convenient for purposes of reference to number definitions, propositions, corollaries, &c., in one continued series. Moreover, the work is divided into two parts, one treating of plane figures, and the other of solids; and the subdivisions of each part are denominated sections.

As a knowledge of algebraical signs and the theory of proportions is necessary to the understanding of this treatise, a brief explanation of these, taken chiefly from Lacroix's geometry, and forming properly a supplement to this arithmetic, is prefixed to the work, under the title of an Introduction.

The parts onutted in the first edition of this translation on spherical isoperimetrical polygons, and on the regular poly

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