Subject: Re: [HM] Gauss experiment on three mountain peaks
From: Herbert Prinz (heprinz@attglobal.net)
Date: Fri Feb 18 2000 - 01:20:19 EST
Dear list members,
W.K. Buehler, in his "Gauss, A Biographical Study", Springer 1981
briefly mentions the famous measurement of the triangle
Hohenhagen-Inselberg-Brocken, which was a geodetical control
measurement. He considers it a myth that Gauss wanted thereby to
decide the question of the Euclidean nature of space.
However, there is an interesting footnote on p.100: "It was,
incidentally, Lobachevski, who first proposed to investigate a stellar
triangle for an experimental resolution of the question."
I have been trying in vain to find more about this. Would anybody have
an idea what Lobachevski had in mind?
Best regards
Herbert Prinz
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