Date: Aug 20, 2007 11:11 PM
Author: John Harper
Subject: Re: History of Pythagorean Theorem

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007, Cliff P. wrote:

> Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 22:37:39 EDT
> From: Cliff P. <discussions@MATHFORUM.ORG>
> To: MATH-HISTORY-LIST@ENTERPRISE.MAA.ORG
> Subject: History of Pythagorean Theorem
> 
> The History of Pythagorean Theorem is interesting.  Do you agree with the following?
>
> Although Pythagoras's most famous theorem, a^2 + b^2 = c^2 for a right 
> triangle with legs a and b and hypotenuse c, may have been known to the 
> Babylonians much earlier, it  is likely that Pythagoras was among the 
> first to prove it.

It may of course have been known to the Chinese pre-Pythagoras.

-- John Harper, School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science,
Victoria University, PO Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
e-mail john.harper@vuw.ac.nz phone (+64)(4)463 5341 fax (+64)(4)463 5045