Samantha Hoffman

Ellsworth High School

Calculus Class

December 2001

Pythagoras was born around the year 582 BC. Today he is know as a great Greek philosopher and mathematician. Many mathematicians before him taught him, and he has influenced many great mathematician since his time. His work has had a profound effect on math, as we know it today.

Pythagoras was born on the island of Samos. He was taught in the teachings of philosophers and mathematicians before him like Thales, Anaximander, and Anaxiameres.

Around 530 BC he settled in Crotona, which is in southern Italy. While there, he founded a religious, political, and philosophical movement. His movement was called Pythagoreanism. Its followers only knew the movement's philosophy. His followers were called Pythagoreans. Pythagoras and his followers believed in immortality and in the transmigration of souls. They practiced obedience, silence, abstinence from food, simple dress and possessions, and the habit of self-examination. Pythagoras claimed that in a former life, he was a warrior in the Trojan War.

Pythagoras and his group also worked with the theory of numbers. They did a lot of work with odd and even numbers. Pythagoras also worked hard with prime and square numbers. The Pythagoreans came up with the idea and concept of a number. The concept of a number became the principal of all proportions, order, and harmony in the universe for the Pythagoreans.

One of the greatest discoveries made by Pythagoras and his group was the hypotenuse theorem, which is also known as the Pythagorean theorem. The Pythagorean theorem states the at the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other tow sides of the triangle. On example of how the Pythagorean theorem is used is 5^2=4^2+3^2. This theory is used in all kinds of math and is used as a base theorem in geometry.

The Pythagoreans had a huge impact on the scientific world. They were the first to believe that the earth was like a globe that revolved with other planets around a central fire, which they knew was the sun. They explained their theory of the planets as an arrangement of bodies in a single sphere moving to a certain numerical pattern. They also believed that the movement of the spheres gave rise to musical sounds, because of the "harmony of the spheres."

Pythagoras’s philosophers had a strong, profound impact on Plato, and many other scientist, mathematicians, and philosophers. Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans, lead the way for many, mathematicians that came before them.

Pythagoras died in about the year 500 BC Pythagoras and his followers searched for harmony in mathematics with the Pythagorean theorem and in science with the planets revolving around the sun. They wanted answers to show the peace in the earth.

We use Pythagoras’s math in everyday life. His work answered his questions, and today it is answering our questions. He helped to establish the base work for math and science. Today, Pythagoras can be viewed as a wise man that helped to give us a jump on understanding our world.

Compton's Encyclopedia. Compton's Learning Company, Chicago, 1997. Volume 19, Page 672.

The World Book Encyclopedia. World Book, Inc., Chicago, 1994. Volume 15, Page 921.

Oakley, C. Principles of Mathematics. McGraw Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, 1955.