their volumes in the triplicate ratio, of their sides. Then he proves that the surfaces and volumes of the inscribed and circumscribed figures respectively are less and greater than the surface and volume respectively to which the main propositions declare the surface and volume of the sphere to be equal (Props. 25, 27, 30, 31 Cor.). He has now all the material for applying the method of exhaustion and so proves the main propositions about the surface and volume of the sphere. The rest of the book applies the same procedure to a segment of the sphere. Surfaces of revolution are inscribed and circumscribed to a segment less than a hemisphere, and the theorem about the surface of the segment is finally proved in Prop. 42. Prop. 43 deduces the surface of a segment greater than a hemisphere. Prop. 44 gives the volume of the sector of the sphere which includes any segment.
Book II begins with the problem of finding a sphere equal in volume to a given cone or cylinder; this requires the solution of the problem of the two mean proportionals, which is accordingly assumed. Prop. 2 deduces, by means of 1., 44, an expression for the volume of a segment of a sphere, and Props. 3, 4 solve the important problems of cutting a given sphere by a plane so that (a) the surfaces, (b) the volumes, of the segments may have to one another a given ratio. The solution of the second problem (Prop. 4) is difficult. Archimedes reduces it to the problem of dividing a straight line AB into two parts at a point M such that
MB : (a given length) = (a given area) : AM².
The solution of this problem with a determination of the limits of possibility are given in a fragment by Archimedes, discovered and preserved for us by Eutocius in his commentary on the book; they are effected by means of the points of intersection of two conics, a parabola and a