Word: tangents
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...entire geometry class of the Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles was agreed. Not one of them could make head or tail of the problem: "The common external tangent of two tangent circles of radii 8 inches and 2 inches is - ." Fortunately, the class secretary, 15-year-old Johanna Mankiewicz, had an inspiration. All the class had to do, she decided, was to write a letter to the Most Famous Physicist in the World...
...stamp on the envelope. In any case, Johanna got his letter, with a diagram* and instructions on how to do the problem. The Physicist's diagram merely suggested that a right triangle can be formed from 1) the line of centers, 2) a line parallel to the common tangent and running through the center of the smaller circle, and 3) the radius of the larger circle. The length of the tangent can then be found by applying the Pythagorean Theorem. "This," concluded the great man, "gives the solution." Then he signed his initials-A.E., for Albert Einstein...
...Probably a rather baffling diagram for Johanna. Instead of drawing the tangent circles the problem called for, the Physicist spread his circles apart, introduced a third circle with a radius equal to the difference between the radii of the original...
...angry Raymond Massey, who, as Nathan the Prophet, speaks loudly and carries a big stick. All can be made well-and obviously will be-if David will return to the prayerful, God-fearing ways of his youth. While David prays, the movie unaccountably wanders off on a tangent in flashback, interrupting its climax for a blow-by-blow account of how young David slew Goliath, played by hulking (6 ft. 8½ in., 320 lbs.) Wrestler Walter ("The Polish Angel") Talun...
...gist of your McCarthy editorial of April 14 seems to be that Lattimore "struck a tangent" to the communist line, once a long time ago, at a point where anybody could, and where everybody did but "may not like to remember it," and finally that Lattimore diverges all over the place, so isn't McCarthy a heel anyway...