A little history lesson….

Meet Pythagoras……

A few facts about Pythagoras:

Born about 569 B.C. on the island of Samos in Greece

He traveled quite a bit with his fatherWas educated by 3 great philosophersTraveled to Egypt & was accepted into the priesthood. There he studied geometry

A few little know facts:

Pythagoras was taken prisoner by the King of Persia and brought to Babylon

He studied arithmetic & music with the Magoi and the mystical Babylonians

He went back to Greece, but then left for ItalyIt was in Italy that he founded the Brotherhood of Pythagoreans

What did the Brotherhood of Pythagoreans accomplish?

They believed that reality is mathematical in nature

They observed strict loyalty and secrecyThey were interested in the abstract proof

and many types of mathematical conceptsFollowers discovered that the sum of the

angels of a triangle is equal to 2 right angles or 180 degrees

But it’s not all about math….

Pythagoras was a musician as well. He learned the mathematical ratios of vibrating strings

They taught that the earth was a sphere in the center of the universe

They taught that the orbit of the moon was inclined to the equator

But did he really invent the Pythagorean Theorem?

Probably not. The theorem was already known by the Babylonians 1000 earlier.

The Pythagoreans were perhaps the first to prove it.

Legend has it that when they finally completed the proof, the

Pythagoreans sacrificed 100 oxen.

http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMT668/EMAT6680.F99/Challen/pythagorean/lesson1/lesson1