Pythagoras

One of the earliest mathematicians in time named Pythagoras started looking at the world in ways of shapes and functions. He was a famous mathematician in Greece around the 500’s BC. He was a philosopher and the founder of Pythagoreanism. He was a political and religious man that later on inspired Aristotle and Plato with their work. Around 530 BC, he went onto Coton and started a school to share his knowledge and beliefs.  

 One of his many works was said to be that the planets move accordingly to math equations and produces an inaudible symphony of music.  He also introduced the Pythagoran tuning method into music. It deals with music notes and tuning.  

He is also well known for coming up with the Pythagorean theorem with the help of his Pythagorean brotherhood.  The Pythagorean theorem states that: A squared plus B squared equals C squared.  This is used in geometry to figure out the length of a missing side of a right triangle. The hypotenuse is the longest side of a right triangle. The other two sides are called the legs. A right triangle is a triangle that has one of its corners equaling ninety degrees. Either side value of the triangle can be missing but, as long as you have the other two sides of the triangle you can figure out the missing part. It’s a simple procedure that can be tricky if you let don’t understand what you are looking for. For example, if I have the values of the two legs I would need to find the value of the hypotenuse.  A and B squared are referencing to the lengths of the two legs of the triangle. C squared is the hypotenuse length.  So the theory states that if I add the length of the two legs they will equal the length of the hypotenuse.  

He is also credited to finding the theory of proportions. The definition from Wikipedia is,” two varying quantities are said to be in a relation of proportionality, if they are multiplicatively connected to a constant, that is, when either ratio or their product yields a constant. The value of this constant is called the coefficient of proportionality or proportionality constant.” If I’m being totally honest, I don’t quite get what this means. I know that proportions are objects or things that have a ratio that can be equal to each other or they are relative in size.  

What many people don’t know is that Pythagoras started a brotherhood of men who were mathematicians. Their brotherhood was perceived as a cult by many historians today. The Pythagorean brotherhood had their own rituals, prayers, and symbols. They were devoted to their brotherhood and mathematics. According to Wikipedia the Pythagoreans used mathematics for solely mystical reasons. It has a creepy undertone to this group that was suppose to be future mathematicians of the world. 

Thanks to Pythagoras we now have a better understanding of math and new ways to solve problems in the world. We can thank him for his discoveries and continue to build onto them.