Pythagorean Theorem Demonstration

Duration: 1 minute and 33 seconds

Country: United States

Language: English

License: CC Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

Genre: None

Views: 866 (3 embedded)

Posted by: tonhaco on May 6, 2008

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Hello! Michael here
This is a very short video
about how I think Pythagoras discovered the proof of the theorem that bears his name
First of all. Pythagoras lived about two and a half thousand years ago
He wasn't the man who discovered the theorem;
It had been known for about two and a half thousand years before that
He was the person who discovered the mathematical proof of it
If you want to know more about Pythagoras the man
Wikipedia is a good place to start
Well, first of all
the theorem is about right angle triangles
like this one.
It states that the square of the hypotenuse
is equal to the sum of the squares on the two other sides
That means the areas of the squares
So, here are the squares on the shorter side of the triangle
they're easy enough to construct
It will make life a little easier if we label them
The standard way is a and b for the short sides
and c for the hypotenuse.
now this is how I think he constructed the square on the hypotenuse
He knew that the two smaller angles
add up to a right angle
and so he knew that he could start with one triangle here
and add another ... and another ... and another
and finish up with this perfect square on the hypotenuse.

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