Objective:

Study of various aspects of Pythagoras Theorem.

Biography of Pythagoras

Born Approximately 569 BC, Samos Greece

Died Approximately 500 - 475 BC, Metapontum Italy

P ythagoras is often referred to as the first pure mathematician. He was born on the island of Samos,

Greece in 569 BC. Various writings place his death between 500 BC and 475 BC in Metapontum,
Lucania, Italy. His father, Mnesarchus, was a gem merchant. His mother's name was Pythais. Pythagoras
had two or three brothers.

Pythagoras was well educated, and he played the lyre throughout his lifetime, knew poetry and recited
Homer. He was interested in mathematics, philosophy, astronomy and music, and was greatly influenced
by Pherekydes (philosophy), Thales (mathematics and astronomy) and Anaximander (philosophy,
geometry).

Pythagoras left Samos for Egypt in about 535 B.C. to study with the priests in the temples. Many of the
practices of the society he created later in Italy can be traced to the beliefs of Egyptian priests, such as
the codes of secrecy, striving for purity, and refusal to eat beans or to wear animal skins as clothing.
Ten years later, when Persia invaded Egypt, Pythagoras was taken prisoner and sent to Babylon, where
he met the Magoi, priests who taught him sacred rites. In 520 BC, Pythagoras, now a free man, left
Babylon and returned to Samos, and sometime later began a school called The Semicircle.

Pythagoras settled in Crotona, a Greek colony in southern Italy, about 518 BC, and founded a
philosophical and religious school where his many followers lived and worked. The Pythagoreans lived by
rules of behavior, including when they spoke, what they wore and what they ate. Pythagoras was the
Master of the society, and the followers, both men and women, who also lived there, were known as
mathematikoi. Pythagoras believed:

 All things are numbers. Mathematics is the basis for everything, and geometry is the highest
form of mathematical studies. The physical world can understood through mathematics.

 The soul resides in the brain, and is immortal. It moves from one being to another,
sometimes from a human into an animal, through a series of reincarnations called
transmigration until it becomes pure. Pythagoras believed that both mathematics and music
could purify.

 Numbers have personalities, characteristics, strengths and weaknesses.

 The world depends upon the interaction of opposites, such as male and female, lightness
and darkness, warm and cold, dry and moist, light and heavy, fast and slow.

 Certain symbols have a mystical significance.

 All members of the society should observe strict loyalty and secrecy.

Some of the students of Pythagoras eventually wrote down the theories, teachings and discoveries of the
group, but the Pythagoreans always gave credit to Pythagoras as the Master for:

1. The sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles.

2. The theorem of Pythagoras - for a right-angled triangle the square on the hypotenuse is equal to
the sum of the squares on the other two sides. The Babylonians understood this 1000 years
earlier, but Pythagoras proved it.

3. Constructing figures of a given area and geometrical algebra.

4. The discovery of irrational numbers is attributed to the Pythagoreans, but seems unlikely to have
been the idea of Pythagoras because it does not align with his philosophy the all things are
numbers, since number to him meant the ratio of two whole numbers.

5. The five regular solids (tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, icosahedron, dodecahedron).

6. Pythagoras taught that Earth was a sphere in the center of the Kosmos (Universe), that the
planets, stars, and the universe were spherical because the sphere was the most perfect solid
 figure. He also taught that the paths of the planets were circular. Pythagoras recognized that the
morning star was the same as the evening star, Venus.

Pythagoras studied odd and even numbers, triangular numbers, and perfect numbers. Pythagoreans
contributed to our understanding of angles, triangles, areas, proportion, polygons, and polyhedra.

The reports of Pythagoras' death are varied. He is said to have been killed by an angry mob, to have
been caught up in a war between the Agrigentum and the Syracusans and killed by the Syracusans, or
been burned out of his school in Crotona and then went to Metapontum where he starved himself to
death.

The Pythagorean Theorem is a cornerstone of mathematics, and continues to be so interesting to

mathematicians that there are more than 400 different proofs of the theorem, including an original proof
by President Garfield.

Statement of the theorem

The Pythagorean theorem: The sum of the areas of the two squares on the legs (a and b) equals the area of the square on the
hypotenuse (c).

In mathematics, the Pythagorean theorem or Pythagoras' theorem is a relation in Euclidean

geometry among the three sides of a right triangle (right-angled triangle). In terms of areas, it
states:
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).

The theorem can be written as the Pythagorean equation relating the lengths of the sides a, b and
c :

where c represents the length of the hypotenuse, and a and b represent the lengths of the other
two sides.

PYTHAGOREAN   THEOREM   PROOF

There are literally dozens of proofs for the Pythagorean Theorem. The proof
shown here is probably the clearest and easiest to understand.

The Pythagorean Theorem states that for any right triangle the square of the
hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the other 2 sides.

If we draw a right triangle having sides 'a' 'b' and 'c' (with 'c' being the
hypotenuse)

then according to the theorem, the length of c² = a² + b²

In order to prove the theorem, we construct squares on each of the sides of the
triangle.
Now, for the important concepts of this proof:

1)   The Pythagoren Theorem concerns squaring each side of a right triangle

2)   When we square the length of one side of the triangle, that is exactly the
same as determining the area of the attached square because the area of a square
is the length of its side squared.
(For example, the area of the green square, would be a²).
3)   If we can show that the area of the green square plus the area of the red
square is equal to the area of the blue square, then we have proven the
Pythagorean Theorem.

Now let's draw a line extending the 'a' side and a line extending the 'b' side.
These have been drawn in gray and are labelled with the accompanying lengths.
Then we draw 2 lines perpindicular to these lines so that the blue square is
surrounded by a larger square each side having a length of (a+b). Therefore, the
area of the larger square equals (a+b)² which equals a² + 2ab + b².
Note that the blue square is surrounded by 4 right triangles, the area of each
being ½ (a•b) and so the area of all 4 triangles totals 2•a•b.
So, the area of the blue square = area of the surrounding square minus the area of
the 4 triangles.
Area of blue square = a² + 2ab + b² minus 2ab
Blue Square Area = c² = a² + b²

We have just proven the Pythagorean Theorem.

Applications of Pythagoras Theorem (Real Life Examples):

Height of a Building

Firemen, construction workers, and other workers often rely on the use of ladders in their line of
work. They make use of the Pythagorean Theorem in various situations. For example, the height
to a second story window may be 25 feet, and a window cleaner may need to put the ladder ten
feet away from the house in order to avoid the bushes or flowers. How long of a ladder does the
window cleaner need in order to achieve this task? (25)^2 + (10)^2 = c^2, or the length of ladder
needed. 625 + 100 = 725. The square root of 725 is approximately 27, so the window cleaner
would need a ladder 27 feet long.

Two friends meeting at a specific destination

Let’s say Bob and Larry are meeting at Blockbuster on the corner of Park and Pleasant Street.
Presently, Bob is on Park Street to and is 8 miles away. Meanwhile, Larry is on Pleasant Street 7
miles away. How far away are they from each other? (8)^2 + (7)^2 = distance between Bob and
Larry. 64 + 49 = 113. The square root of 113 is approximately 10.6. Thus, this is how far apart
Bob and Larry are from each other.

Ramp of a moving truck

The height of a moving truck is 4 feet. The distance from the bottom edge of a ramp on the
ground to the truck is 6 feet. How long is the ramp? (4)^2 + (6)^2 = length of ramp.
16 + 36 = 52. The square root of 52 is approximately 7.2, which is the length of the ramp.

Measurement of TV

Television sets are generally measured diagonally, thus classifying them as 13 inches, 27 inches,
36 inches, and so forth. Suppose we want to purchase an entertainment center, but it only holds
enough room in it’s cubicle for a 27 inch TV set. We initially know that the length of our TV is
15 inches, and the height of our TV is 12 inches. Will our TV be able to fit into the cubicle?
(15)^2 + (12)^2 = 369. The square root of 369 is approximately 19.2 inches. Therefore, our TV
will fit with plenty of room to spare.

Pythagorean Triplets of Integers:

A Pythagorean triple consists of three positive integers a, b, and c, such that a2 + b2 = c2. Such a
triple is commonly written (a, b, c), and a well-known example is (3, 4, 5). If (a, b, c) is a
Pythagorean triple, then so is (ka, kb, kc) for any positive integer k. A primitive Pythagorean
triple is one in which a, b and c are pairwise coprime. A right triangle whose sides form a
Pythagorean triple is called a Pythagorean triangle.

The name is derived from the Pythagorean Theorem, stating that every right triangle has side
lengths satisfying the formula a2 + b2 = c2; thus, Pythagorean triples describe the three integer
side lengths of a right triangle. However, right triangles with non-integer sides do not form
Pythagorean triples. For instance, the triangle with sides a = b = 1 and c = √2 is right, but (1, 1,
√2) is not a Pythagorean triple because √2 is not an integer. Moreover, 1 and √2 do not have an
integer common multiple because √2 is irrational. There are 16 primitive Pythagorean triples
with c ≤ 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)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Websites Referred:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_theorem

 http://www.mathopenref.com/pythagoras.html

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_triple

 http://middle-school-

curriculum.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_pythagorean_theorem

2. Books Referred:

 Mathematics Textbook for Class IX, NCERT, 4th Edition, p. 5, 6, 7.