PYTHAGORAS

 Pythagoras of Samos “Pythagoras the Samian”, c. 570 BC – c. 495 BC, was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. He was born on the island of Samos, and might have travelled widely in his youth, visiting Egypt and other places seeking knowledge. Around 530 BC, he moved to Croton, in Magna Graecia, and there set up a religious sect. His followers pursued the religious rites and practices developed by Pythagoras, and studied his philosophical theories. The society took an active role in the politics of Croton, but this eventually led to their downfall. The Pythagorean meeting-places were burned, and Pythagoras was forced to flee the city.  Pythagoras made influential contributions to philosophy and religious teaching in the late 6th century BC. He is often referred to as a great mathematician, mystic and scientist, but he is best known for the Pythagorean theorem which bears his name.  Many of the accomplishments credited to Pythagoras may actually have been accomplishments of his colleagues and successors. Whether or not his disciples believed that everything was related to mathematics and that numbers were the ultimate reality is unknown. It was said that he was the first man to call himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom, and Pythagorean ideas exercised a marked influence on Plato, and through him, all of Western philosophy.

Pythagorean theorem

According to the Pythagorean theorem,  in a right-angled triangle the area of the square on the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares of the other two sides—that is, a^2 + b^2 = c^2. While the theorem that now bears his name was known and previously utilized by the Babylonians and Indians, he, or his students, are often said to have constructed the first proof. Because of the secretive nature of his school and the custom of its students to attribute everything to their teacher, there is no evidence that Pythagoras himself worked on or proved this theorem. For that matter, there is no evidence that he worked on any mathematical or meta-mathematical problems. Some attribute it as a carefully constructed myth by followers of Plato over two centuries after the death of Pythagoras, mainly to bolster the case for Platonic meta-physics, which resonate well with the ideas they attributed to Pythagoras.

1.       What is Pythagoras known as?

a.       Mathematician

b.      Philosopher

c.       Mystic

d.      All the above

2.       Where was he born?

a.       Samos

b.       Crete

c.        Athens

d.      Thessaloniki

3.       He is also known for

a.       His theorem

b.      His riot

c.       His paintings

d.      His battles