📖 what
What is the Pythagorean theorem?
mathematicsgeometry
Quick Answer
In a right-angled triangle, the square of the longest side equals the sum of the squares of the other two: a² + b² = c².
The Full Story
The theorem is named after the Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who lived around 570 to 495 BC, though Babylonian mathematicians knew the relationship more than 1,000 years earlier; a clay tablet called Plimpton 322, from around 1800 BC, lists Pythagorean triples. The classic example is a triangle with sides 3, 4 and 5, since 9 + 16 = 25. The theorem has hundreds of known proofs, including one by US President James Garfield in 1876. It is used everywhere from construction and navigation to computer graphics and GPS distance calculations.
Key Facts
1.a² + b² = c²
2.Babylonians knew it by around 1800 BC
3.President James Garfield published a proof in 1876
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