Pythagorean Theorem Essay

The History of the Pythagorean Theorem

The Pythagorean Theorem is a named after a Greek mathematician and philosopher, named Pythagoras, but is he really the one who discovered the theorem? It?s kind of like the

Crossover Dribble in basketball. Most people attribute the move to Allen Iverson, but when you look into the history of the crossover some say it began in a street basketball game by a guy named Richard Kirkland, some attribute it to Oscar Robertson in the 60?s, but it was definitely

Allen Iverson who popularized the double crossover. Pythagoras popularized the theorem, but when you study the history you discover the theory existed before Pythagoras? was even born.

The Pythagorean Theorem says that ?the sum of the squares of

And these tablets are believed to date about 1000 years before Pythagoras. And the Babylonians are not the only ones!According to Eric McCullough & Brian Deitz the Egyptians knew that a triangle with sides 3, 4, and 5 make a 90 degrees angle, and they also used a rope with 12 evenly spaced knots that they used to build perfect corners in their buildings and pyramids. In another article, titled The History of the

Pythagorean Theorem, ancient Indian mathematicians also knew the Pythagorean theorem, and it is discussed in the?Sulbasutras?(of which the earliest date from ca. 800-600 B.C.). Also, according to the article, some believe that the ancient Mayas used variations of Pythagorean triples in their?Long Count?calendar. But perhaps the most interesting of all is the Chou-Pei

Proof.

Mathematicians Eric McCullough & Brian Deitz state that the Chou Pei presents the oldest known proof of the right-angle triangle theory in the hsuan-thu diagram. The principles were reflected in the popular approach known as chi-chu, or "the piling up of squares" which was how they used geometry to solve algebraic problems. And that is sort of what we