Pythagoras' Theorem

Years ago, a man named

Pythagoras found an amazing fact
about triangles:

If the triangle had a right angle

(90°) ...

... and you made a square on each

of the three sides, then ...

... the biggest square had the exact same

area as the other two squares put together!

The longest side of the triangle is called the "hypotenuse",

so the formal definition is:

In a right angled triangle the square of the

hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of
the other two sides.

So, the square of a (a²) plus the square of b (b²) is

equal to the square of c (c²):

a2 + b2 = c2

Life
Pythagoras was born on Samos, a Greek island in the
eastern Aegean, off the coast of Asia Minor. He was born to
Pythais (his mother, a native of Samos) and Mnesarchus (his
father, a Phoenician merchant from Tyre). As a young man,
he left his native city for Croton, Calabria, in Southern Italy,
to escape the tyrannical government of Polycrates.
According to Iamblichus, Thales, impressed with his abilities,
advised Pythagoras to head to Memphis in Egypt and study
with the priests there who were renowned for their wisdom.
He was also discipled in the temples of Tyre and Byblos in
Phoenicia. It may have been in Egypt where he learned some
geometric principles which eventually inspired his
formulation of the theorem that is now called by his name.
This possible inspiration is presented as an extraordinaire
problem in the Berlin Papyrus. Upon his migration from
Samos to Croton, Calabria, Italy, Pythagoras established a
secret religious society very similar to (and possibly
influenced by) the earlier Orphic cult.

Bust of Pythagoras, Vatican

Pythagoras undertook a reform of the cultural life of Croton,
urging the citizens to follow virtue and form an elite circle of
followers around himself called Pythagoreans. Very strict
rules of conduct governed this cultural center. He opened his
school to both male and female students uniformly. Those
who joined the inner circle of Pythagoras's society called
themselves the Mathematikoi. They lived at the school,
owned no personal possessions and were required to
assume a mainly vegetarian diet (meat that could be
sacrificed was allowed to be eaten). Other students who
lived in neighboring areas were also permitted to attend
Pythagoras's school. Known as Akousmatikoi, these students
were permitted to eat meat and own personal belongings.
Richard Blackmore, in his book The Lay Monastery (1714),
saw in the religious observances of the Pythagoreans, "the
first instance recorded in history of a monastic life."
According to Iamblichus, the Pythagoreans followed a
structured life of religious teaching, common meals,
exercise, reading and philosophical study. Music featured as
an essential organizing factor of this life: the disciples would
sing hymns to Apollo together regularly; they used
the lyre to cure illness of the soul or body; poetry recitations
occurred before and after sleep to aid the memory.
Flavius Josephus, in his polemical Against Apion, in defence
of Judaism against Greek philosophy, mentions that
according to Hermippus of Smyrna, Pythagoras was familiar
with Jewish beliefs, incorporating some of them in his own
philosophy.
Towards the end of his life he fled to Metapontum because of
a plot against him and his followers by a noble of Croton
named Cylon. He died in Metapontum around 90 years old
from unknown causes.

Influence on Plato
Pythagoras or in a broader sense, the Pythagoreans,
allegedly exercised an important influence on the work
of Plato. According to R. M. Hare, his influence consists of
three points: a) the platonic Republic might be related to the
idea of "a tightly organized community of like-minded
thinkers", like the one established by Pythagoras in Croton.
b) there is evidence that Plato possibly took from Pythagoras
the idea that mathematics and, generally speaking, abstract
thinking is a secure basis for philosophical thinking as well as
"for substantial theses in scienceand morals". c) Plato and
Pythagoras shared a "mystical approach to the soul and its
place in the material world". It is probable that both have
been influenced by Orphism.[11]
Plato's harmonics were clearly influenced by the work
of Archytas, a genuine Pythagorean of the third generation,
who made important contributions to geometry, reflected in
Book VIII of Euclid's Elements.
Roman influence
In the legends of ancient Rome, Numa Pompilius, the second
King of Rome, is said to have studied under Pythagoras. This
is unlikely, since the commonly accepted dates for the two
lives do not overlap.
Influence on esoteric groups
Pythagoras started a secret society called the Pythagorean
brotherhood devoted to the study of mathematics. This had
a great effect on future esoteric traditions, such
as Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, both of which were
occult groups dedicated to the study of mathematics and
both of which claimed to have evolved out of the
Pythagorean brotherhood. The mystical and occult qualities
of Pythagorean mathematics are discussed in a chapter of
Manly P. Hall's The Secret Teachings of All Ages entitled
"Pythagorean Mathematics".
Pythagorean theory was tremendously influential on
later numerology, which was extremely popular throughout
the Middle East in the ancient world. The 8th-
century Muslim alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan grounded his
work in an elaborate numerology greatly influenced by
Pythagorean theory.

THEORUM

In mathematics, the Pythagorean theorem (American

English) or Pythagoras' theorem (British English) is a
relation in Euclidean geometry among the three sides of
a right triangle. The theorem is named after
the Greek mathematician Pythagoras, who by tradition is
credited with its discovery and proof,[1] although it is often
argued that knowledge of the theory predates him. (There is
much evidence that Babylonian mathematicians understood
the principle, if not the mathematical significance). The
theorem is as follows:
In any right triangle, the area of the square whose side is
the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to
the sum of the areas of the squares whose sides are the two
legs (the two sides that meet at a right angle).
This is usually summarized as follows:
The square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to
the sum of the squares on the other two sides.[2]

In formulae
If we let c be the length of the hypotenuse and a and b be the lengths of
the other two sides, the theorem can be expressed as the equation:

or, solved for c:

If c is already given, and the length of one of the legs must be

found, the following equations can be used (The following
equations are simply the converse of the original equation):

or

This equation provides a simple relation among the three

sides of a right triangle so that if the lengths of any two
sides are known, the length of the third side can be found. A
generalization of this theorem is the law of cosines, which
allows the computation of the length of the third side of any
triangle, given the lengths of two sides and the size of the
angle between them. If the angle between the sides is a
right angle it reduces to the Pythagorean theorem.

Visual proof for the (3, 4, 5) triangle as in the Chou Pei Suan
Ching 500–200 BC.

[edit]History
The history of the theorem can be divided into four parts:
knowledge of Pythagorean triples, knowledge of the
relationship between the sides of a right triangle,
knowledge of the relationship between adjacent angles, and
proofs of the theorem.
Megalithic monuments from circa 2500 BC in Egypt, and
in Northern Europe, incorporate right triangles with integer
sides.[3] Bartel Leendert van der Waerden conjectures that
these Pythagorean triples were discovered algebraically.[4]
Written between 2000 and 1786 BC, the Middle
Kingdom Egyptian papyrus Berlin 6619 includes a problem
whose solution is a Pythagorean triple.
During the reign of Hammurabi the Great,
the Mesopotamian tablet Plimpton 322, written
between 1790and 1750 BC, contains many entries closely
related to Pythagorean triples.
The Baudhayana Sulba Sutra, the dates of which are given
variously as between the 8th century BC and the 2nd
century BC, in India, contains a list of Pythagorean
triples discovered algebraically, a statement of the
Pythagorean theorem, and a geometrical proof of the
Pythagorean theorem for an isosceles right triangle.
The Apastamba Sulba Sutra (circa 600 BC) contains a
numerical proof of the general Pythagorean theorem, using
an area computation. Van der Waerden believes that "it was
certainly based on earlier traditions". According to Albert
Bŭrk, this is the original proof of the theorem; he further
theorizes that Pythagoras visited Arakonam, India, and
copied it.
Pythagoras, whose dates are commonly given as 569–475
BC, used algebraic methods to construct Pythagorean
triples, according to Proklos's commentary on Euclid.
Proklos, however, wrote between 410 and 485 AD.
According to Sir Thomas L. Heath, there was no attribution
of the theorem to Pythagoras for five centuries after
Pythagoras lived. However, when authors such
as Plutarch and Cicero attributed the theorem to
Pythagoras, they did so in a way which suggests that the
attribution was widely known and undoubted.[5]
Around 400 BC, according to Proklos, Plato gave a method
for finding Pythagorean triples that combined algebra and
geometry. Circa 300 BC, in Euclid's Elements, the oldest
extant axiomatic proof of the theorem is presented.
Written sometime between 500 BC and 200 AD,
the Chinese text Chou Pei Suan Ching (周髀算经), (The
Arithmetical Classic of the Gnomon and the Circular Paths
of Heaven) gives a visual proof of the Pythagorean theorem
— in China it is called the "Gougu Theorem" (勾股定理) — for
the (3, 4, 5) triangle. During the Han Dynasty, from 202 BC to 220
AD, Pythagorean triples appear inThe Nine Chapters on the
Mathematical Art, together with a mention of right triangles.
[6]

The first recorded use is in China, known as the "Gougu

theorem" (勾股定理) and in India known as the Bhaskara
Theorem.
There is much debate on whether the Pythagorean theorem
was discovered once or many times. Boyer (1991) thinks
the elements found in the Shulba Sutras may be of
Mesopotamian derivation.[7]
Proof using similar triangles

Proof using similar triangles.

Like most of the proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, this one is based on
the proportionality of the sides of two similar triangles.

Let ABC represent a right triangle, with the right angle located at C, as shown on the
figure. We draw thealtitude from point C, and call H its intersection with the side AB.
The new triangle ACH is similar to our triangle ABC, because they both have a right
angle (by definition of the altitude), and they share the angle at A, meaning that the
third angle will be the same in both triangles as well. By a similar reasoning, the
triangle CBH is also similar to ABC. The similarities lead to the two ratios..: As

so

These can be written as

Summing these two equalities, we obtain

In other words, the Pythagorean theorem:

Consequences and uses of the

theorem
[edit]Pythagorean triples
Main article: Pythagorean triple

A Pythagorean triple has 3 positive numbers a, b, and c, such that a2 + b2 = c2. In

other words, a Pythagorean triple represents the lengths of the sides of a right
triangle where all three sides have integer lengths. Evidence from megalithic
monuments on the Northern Europe shows that such triples were known before
the discovery of writing. Such a triple is commonly written (a, b, c). Some well-
known examples are (3, 4, 5) and (5, 12, 13).

[edit]List of primitive Pythagorean triples up to 100

(3, 4, 5), (5, 12, 13), (7, 24, 25), (8, 15, 17), (9, 40, 41), (11, 60, 61), (12, 35, 37),
(13, 84, 85), (16, 63, 65), (20, 21, 29), (28, 45, 53), (33, 56, 65), (36, 77, 85),
(39, 80, 89), (48, 55, 73), (65, 72, 97)

[edit]The existence of irrational numbers

One of the consequences of the Pythagorean theorem is
that incommensurable lengths (ie. their ratio is irrational number), such as the
square root of 2, can be constructed. A right triangle with legs both equal to one
unit has hypotenuse length square root of 2. The Pythagoreans proved that the
square root of 2 is irrational, and this proof has come down to us even though it
flew in the face of their cherished belief that everything was rational. According
to the legend, Hippasus, who first proved the irrationality of the square root of
two, was drowned at sea as a consequence.[12]

[edit]Distance in Cartesian coordinates

The distance formula in Cartesian coordinates is derived from the Pythagorean
theorem. If (x0, y0) and (x1, y1) are points in the plane, then the distance between
them, also called the Euclidean distance, is given by

More generally, in Euclidean n-space, the Euclidean distance between two

points, and , is defined, using the
Pythagorean theorem, as: