A Budget of Trisections
by Underwood Dudley · first published 1987
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It is impossible to trisect angles with straightedge and compass alone, but many people try and think they have succeeded. This book is about angle trisections and the people who attempt them. Its purposes are to collect many trisections in one place, inform about trisectors, to amuse the reader, and, perhaps most importantly, to reduce the number of trisectors. This book includes detailed information about the personalities of trisectors and their constructions. It can be read by anyone who has taken a high school geometry course.
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I've found Dudley's A Budget of Trisections pretty fun in this regard: the book is filled with depictions of various people's attempts to trisect an angle with straightedge and compass. It turns out that a few steps can get you within arcseconds…
on “Proofs Without Words” ↗This type of behavior was well documented in Underwood Dudley's "A Budget of Trisections." The problem is obsession and a deliberate cultivation of the ticks the public associates with genius are much more common than actual breakthroughs.
on “Math even mathematicians don't understand (the sequel)” ↗