Pythagora's Contributions to Math

Pythagoras was a mathematician who has influenced the math culture until this day. His studies in math are more noted than his contributions to philosophy as well as religion. Due to the fact Pythagoras lived between roughly 520-495 bc there is very little information about him. In fact his exact birthday and death date are mainly estimations based on other historical events. Whatever we know about him is information learned after his death. Most of his writings were not published so we do not have many of his personal notes. Pythagoras is popularly known for his ligating the Pythagorean theorem used in geometry.

It is reported that Pythagoras was born anywhere between 520 to 570 on the Samos island, which was part of Greece . His father's name was Mnesarchus, and he was a merchant while his mother's name was Pythias(School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland, 1999) . Being that his father was a merchant he travelled often to bring back items to sell in Samos so Pythagoras gained the opportunity to travel often with his father(School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland, 1999). When Pythagoras was young it is said that he was very intelligent and worked with Pherekydes, Thales, and Anaximander who helped in shaping his future ideas (School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland, 1999). Thales influenced him in math and astronomy, Anaximander in philosophy and geometry while Pherekydes influenced him in philosophy (Math Open Reference, 2009). He was able to recite Homer as well as being able to play the lyre and learn poetry(School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland, 1999). In around 535 B...

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...Morris & University of Georgia). That is the fundamental thought of the the theorem and can be expanded to solve more complex problems. Another contribution he made are the Pythagorean triples which are three positive integers that follow the a2 + b2 = c2 pattern (Wikipedia , 2013). When a triangle fits into this mold, they are referred to as Pythagorean Triangle (Wikipedia , 2013). Examples would be, 3,4,5 and 5,12,13. When those sets of numbers are seen it can be assumed that the triangle is a right triangle so you can go forth and using the Pythagorean Theorem to solve it. To get a triple set, you need to use Euclid’s formula (Wikipedia , 2013) .

Pythagoras made multiple contributions to math. He also contributed to science and philosophy. His contributions are seen as important today because they act as stepping stones in solving different problems.