eli5: What does it mean that you can’t “square a circle”? Couldn’t you just take a circle with diameter 2, and then a 2×2 square ?
In: Mathematics
The problem is to square the circle using *only a compass and a straightedge.* It cannot be done in a finite number of steps, which surprises us. It seems like we *should* be able to do it, but we can’t because of the fundamental nature of circles.
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