A

PROJECT OF
MATHEMATICS
SUBMITTED TO

MR. GIRISH CHANDRA

SUBMITTED BY

SAURABH VERMA
Class = IX- ‘C’
Roll. No. 39
KENDRIYA VIDYALAYA No. 1.
AFS CHAKERI, KANPUR-208007
 Pythagorean
Theorem
Jump to: navigation, search

The Pythagorean Theorem: The sum of the areas of the

two squares on the legs (a and b) equals the area of the
square on the hypotenuse (c).

In mathematics, the Pythagorean theorem (in

American English) or Pythagoras' theorem (in British
English) is a relation in Euclidean geometry among the
three sides of a right triangle (right-angled triangle in
British English). It states:

In any right triangle, the area of the square whose side is

the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is
equal to the sum of the areas of the squares whose sides
are the two legs (the two sides that meet at a right
angle).

The theorem can be written as an equation:

where c representsL the length of the hypotenuse, and a

and b represent the lengths of the other two sides.

The Pythagorean theorem is named after the Greek

mathematician Pythagoras, who by tradition is credited
with its discovery and proof,[1] although it is often argued
that knowledge of the theory predates him. (There is
much evidence that Babylonian mathematicians
understood the principle, if not the mathematical
significance.)

Contents

 1 In formulae
 2 Proofs
o 2.1 Proof using similar triangles
o 2.2 Euclid's proof
 o 2.3 Garfield's proof
o 2.4 Proof by subtraction
o 2.5 Similarity proof
o 2.6 Proof by rearrangement
o 2.7 Algebraic proof
o 2.8 Proof by differential equations
 3 Converse
 4 Consequences and uses of the theorem
o 4.1 Pythagorean triples
o 4.2 List of primitive Pythagorean triples up to
100
o 4.3 The existence of irrational numbers
o 4.4 Distance in Cartesian coordinates
 5 Generalizations
o 5.1 The Pythagorean theorem in non-
Euclidean geometry
o 5.2 In complex arithmetic
 6 History
 7 Cultural references to the Pythagorean theorem

1. In formulae
If we let c be the length of the hypotenuse and a and b be
the lengths of the other two sides, the theorem can be
expressed as the equation:

or, solved for c:

If c is already given, and the length of one of the legs

must be found, the following equations (which are
corollaries of the first) can be used:

This equation provides a simple relation among the three

sides of a right triangle so that if the lengths of any two
sides are known, the length of the third side can be
found. A generalization of this theorem is the law of
cosines, which allows the computation of the length of
the third side of any triangle, given the lengths of two
sides and the size of the angle between them. If the angle
between the sides is a right angle it reduces to the
Pythagorean theorem.

2. Proofs
 This is a theorem that may have more known
proofs than any other (the law of quadratic reciprocity
being also a contender for that distinction); the book
Pythagorean Proposition, by Elisha Scott Loomis, contains
367 proofs.

• Proof using similar triangles

Proof using similar triangles

Like most of the proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, this

one is based on the proportionality of the sides of two
similar triangles.

Let ABC represent a right triangle, with the right angle

located at C, as shown on the figure. We draw the altitude
from point C, and call H its intersection with the side AB.
The new triangle ACH is similar to our triangle ABC,
because they both have a right angle (by definition of the
altitude), and they share the angle at A, meaning that the
third angle will be the same in both triangles as well. By a
similar reasoning, the triangle CBH is also similar to ABC.
The similarities lead to the two ratios:

Euclid's proof

Proof in Euclid's Elements

In Euclid's Elements, Proposition 47 of Book 1, the

Pythagorean theorem is proved by an argument along the
following lines. Let A, B, C be the vertices of a right
triangle, with a right angle at A. Drop a perpendicular
from A to the side opposite the hypotenuse in the square
on the hypotenuse. That line divides the square on the
hypotenuse into two rectangles, each having the same
area as one of the two squares on the legs.

For the formal proof, we require four elementary

lemmata:

1. If two triangles have two sides of the one equal to

two sides of the other, each to each, and the angles
included by those sides equal, then the triangles are
congruent. (Side - Angle - Side Theorem)
 2. The area of a triangle is half the area of any
parallelogram on the same base and having the
same altitude.
3. The area of any square is equal to the product of two
of its sides.
4. The area of any rectangle is equal to the product of
two adjacent sides (follows from Lemma 3).

The intuitive idea behind this proof, which can make it

easier to follow, is that the top squares are morphed into
parallelograms with the same size, then turned and
morphed into the left and right rectangles in the lower
square, again at constant area.[2]

Illustration including the new lines

The proof is as follows:

1. Let ACB be a right-angled triangle with right angle

CAB.
2. On each of the sides BC, AB, and CA, squares are
drawn, CBDE, BAGF, and ACIH, in that order.
3. From A, draw a line parallel to BD and CE. It will
perpendicularly intersect BC and DE at K and L,
respectively.
4. Join CF and AD, to form the triangles BCF and BDA.
5. Angles CAB and BAG are both right angles; therefore
C, A, and G are collinear. Similarly for B, A, and H.
6. Angles CBD and FBA are both right angles; therefore
angle ABD equals angle FBC, since both are the sum
of a right angle and angle ABC.
7. Since AB and BD are equal to FB and BC,
respectively, triangle ABD must be equal to triangle
FBC.
8. Since A is collinear with K and L, rectangle BDLK
must be twice in area to triangle ABD.
9. Since C is collinear with A and G, square BAGF must
be twice in area to triangle FBC.
10. Therefore rectangle BDLK must have the same area
as square BAGF = AB2.
11. Similarly, it can be shown that rectangle CKLE must
have the same area as square ACIH = AC2.
12. Adding these two results, AB2 + AC2 = BD × BK + KL
× KC
 13. Since BD = KL, BD* BK + KL × KC = BD(BK +
KC) = BD × BC
14. Therefore AB2 + AC2 = BC2, since CBDE is a square.

This proof appears in Euclid's Elements as that of

Proposition 1.47.[3]

Garfield's proof

James A. Garfield (later President of the United States) is

credited with a novel algebraic proof:

The area of a trapezoid is

where h is the height, and s1 and s2 are lengths of the
parallel sides.

So the area of the trapezoid in the figure is

While Triangle 1 and triangle 2 each have area .

And triangle 3 has area , and it is half of the square on

the hypotenuse.

Then the Area of trapezoid is

The two areas must be equal, so

Therefore the square on the hypotenuse = the sum of the
squares on the other two sides.

Proof by subtraction

In this proof, the square on the hypotenuse plus four

copies of the triangle can be assembled into the same
shape as the squares on the other two sides plus four
copies of the triangle. This proof is recorded from China.[

Similarity proof

From the same diagram as that in Euclid's proof above,

we can see three similar figures, each being "a square
with a triangle on top". Since the large triangle is made of
the two smaller triangles, its area is the sum of areas of
the two smaller ones. By similarity, the three squares are
in the same proportions relative to each other as the
three triangles, and so likewise the area of the larger
square is the sum of the areas of the two smaller squares.

Proof by rearrangement
 Proof of Pythagorean Theorem by rearrangement of
4 identical right triangles: Since the total area and the
areas of the triangles are all constant, the total black area
is constant. But this can be divided into squares
delineated by the triangle sides a, b, c, demonstrating
that a2 + b2 = c2.

A proof by rearrangement is given by the illustration

and the animation. In the illustration, the area of each
large square is (a + b)2. In both, the area of four identical
triangles is removed. The remaining areas, a2 + b2 and c2,
are equal.
Proof using rearrangement

• Algebraic proof
A square created by aligning four right angle
triangles and a large square

This proof is indeed very simple, but it is not elementary,

in the sense that it does not depend solely upon the most
basic axioms and theorems of Euclidean geometry. In
particular, while it is quite easy to give a formula for area
of triangles and squares, it is not as easy to prove that
the area of a square is the sum of areas of its pieces. In
fact, proving the necessary properties is harder than
proving the Pythagorean Theorem itself (see Lebesgue
measure and Banach-Tarski paradox). Actually, this
difficulty affects all simple Euclidean proofs involving
area; for instance, deriving the area of a right triangle
involves the assumption that it is half the area of a
rectangle with the same height and base. For this reason,
axiomatic introductions to geometry usually employ
another proof based on the similarity of triangles (see
above).

A third graphic illustration of the Pythagorean

Theorem (in yellow and blue to the right) fits parts of the
sides' squares into the hypotenuse's square. A related
proof would show that the repositioned parts are identical
with the originals and, since the sum of equals are equal,
that the corresponding areas are equal. To show that a
square is the result one must show that the length of the
new sides equals c. Note that for this proof to work, one
must provide a way to handle cutting the small square in
more and more slices as the corresponding side gets
smaller and smaller.[5]

Algebraic proof
An algebraic variant of this proof is provided by the
following reasoning. Looking at the illustration which is a
large square with identical right triangles in its corners,
the area of each of these four triangles is given by an
angle corresponding with the side of length C.

The A-side angle and B-side angle of each of these

triangles are complementary angles, so each of the
angles of the blue area in the middle is a right angle,
making this area a square with side length C. The area of
this square is C2. Thus the area of everything together is
given by:

However, as the large square has sides of length A + B,

we can also calculate its area as (A + B) 2, which expands
to A2 + 2AB + B2.

Proof by differential equations

One can arrive at the Pythagorean Theorem by studying

how changes in a side produce a change in the
hypotenuse in the following diagram and employing a
little

Proof using differential equations

As a result of a change da in side a,

By similarity of triangles and for differential changes. So

Upon separation of variables.

Which results from adding a second term for changes in

side b.

Integrating gives

When a = 0 then c = b, so the "constant" is b2.

As can be seen, the squares are due to the particular
proportion between the changes and the sides while the
sum is a result of the independent contributions of the
changes in the sides which is not evident from the
geometric proofs. From the proportion given it can be
shown that the changes in the sides are inversely
proportional to the sides. The differential equation
suggests that the theorem is due to relative changes and
its derivation is nearly equivalent to computing a line
integral.

These quantities da and dc are respectively infinitely

small changes in a and c. But we use instead real
numbers Δa and Δc, then the limit of their ratio as their
sizes approach zero is da/dc, the derivative, and also
approaches c/a, the ratio of lengths of sides of triangles,
and the differential equation results.

3. Converse

The converse of the theorem is also true: For any three

positive numbers a, b, and c such that a2 + b2 = c2, there
exists a triangle with sides a, b and c, and every such
triangle has a right angle between the sides of lengths a
and b.

This converse also appears in Euclid's Elements. It can be

proven using the law of cosines (see below under
Generalizations), or by the following proof:

Let ABC be a triangle with side lengths a, b, and c, with a2

+ b2 = c2. We need to prove that the angle between the a
and b sides is a right angle. We construct another triangle
with a right angle between sides of lengths a and b. By
the Pythagorean Theorem, it follows that the hypotenuse
of this triangle also has length c. Since both triangles
have the same side lengths a, b and c, they are
congruent, and so they must have the same angles.
Therefore, the angle between the side of lengths a and b
in our original triangle is a right angle. A corollary of the
Pythagorean Theorem’s converse is a simple means of
determining whether a triangle is right, obtuse, or acute,
as follows. Where c is chosen to be the longest of the
three sides:

• If a2 + b2 = c2, then the triangle is right.

• If a2 + b2 > c2, then the triangle is acute.
• If a2 + b2 < c2, then the triangle is obtuse.
4. Consequences and uses of the
theorem

Pythagorean triples

Main article: Pythagorean triple

A Pythagorean triple has three positive integers a, b, and

c, such that a2 + b2 = c2. In other words, a Pythagorean
triple represents the lengths of the sides of a right
triangle where all three sides have integer lengths.
Evidence from megalithic monuments on the Northern
Europe shows that such triples were known before the
discovery of writing. Such a triple is commonly written (a,
b, c). Some well-known examples are (3, 4, 5) and (5, 12,
13).

List of primitive Pythagorean triples up

to 100

(3, 4, 5), (5, 12, 13), (7, 24, 25), (8, 15, 17), (9, 40, 41),
(11, 60, 61), (12, 35, 37), (13, 84, 85), (16, 63, 65), (20,
21, 29), (28, 45, 53), (33, 56, 65), (36, 77, 85), (39, 80,
89), (48, 55, 73), (65, 72, 97)
The existence of irrational numbers

One of the consequences of the Pythagorean Theorem is

that incommensurable lengths (ie. their ratio is irrational
number), such as the square root of 2, can be
constructed. A right triangle with legs both equal to one
unit has hypotenuse length square root of 2. The proof
that the square root of 2 is irrational was contrary to the
long-held belief that everything was rational. According to
legend, Hippasus, who first proved the irrationality of the
square root of two, was drowned at sea as a
consequence.[7]

Distance in Cartesian coordinates

The distance formula in Cartesian coordinates is derived

from the Pythagorean Theorem. If (x0, y0) and (x1, y1) are
points in the plane, then the distance between them, also
called the Euclidean distance, is given by

More generally, in Euclidean n-space, the Euclidean

distance between two points, , is defined, using the
Pythagorean theorem, as:
Generalizations

Generalization for similar triangles, green area = red area

The Pythagorean Theorem was generalized by Euclid in

his Elements:

If one erects similar figures (see Euclidean geometry) on

the sides of a right triangle, then the sum of the areas of
the two smaller ones equals the area of the larger one.

The Pythagorean Theorem is a special case of the more

general theorem relating the lengths of sides in any
triangle, the law of cosines:
 Where θ is the angle between sides a and b.
When θ is 90 degrees, then cos(θ) = 0, so the
formula reduces to the usual Pythagorean theorem.

Given two vectors v and w in a complex inner product

space, the Pythagorean Theorem takes the following
form:

In particular, ||v + w||2 = ||v||2 + ||w||2 if v and w are

orthogonal, although the converse is not necessarily true.

Using mathematical induction, the previous result can be

extended to any finite number of pair wise orthogonal
vectors. Let v1, v2, …, vn be vectors in an inner product
space such that <vi, vj> = 0 for 1 ≤ i < j ≤ n. Then

The generalization of this result to infinite-dimensional

real inner product spaces is known as Parseval's identity.

When the theorem above about vectors is rewritten in

terms of solid geometry, it becomes the following
theorem. If lines AB and BC form a right angle at B, and
lines BC and CD form a right angle at C, and if CD is
perpendicular to the plane containing lines AB and BC,
then the sum of the squares of the lengths of AB, BC, and
CD is equal to the square of AD. The proof is trivial.

Another generalization of the Pythagorean theorem to

three dimensions is de Gua's theorem, named for Jean
Paul de Gua de Malves: If a tetrahedron has a right angle
corner (a corner like a cube), then the square of the area
of the face opposite the right angle corner is the sum of
the squares of the areas of the other three faces.

There are also analogs of these theorems in dimensions

four and higher.

In a triangle with three acute angles, α + β > γ holds.

Therefore, a2 + b2 > c2.

In a triangle with an obtuse angle, α + β < γ holds.

Therefore, a2 + b2 < c2.

Edsger Dijkstra has stated this proposition about acute,

right, and obtuse triangles in this language:

sgn(α + β − γ) = sgn(a2 + b2 − c2)

Where α is the angle opposite to side a, β is the angle
opposite to side b and γ is the angle opposite to side c.[8]

The Pythagorean Theorem in non-

Euclidean geometry

The Pythagorean Theorem is derived from the axioms of

Euclidean geometry, and in fact, the Euclidean form of
the Pythagorean Theorem given above does not hold in
non-Euclidean geometry. (It has been shown in fact to be
equivalent to Euclid's Parallel (Fifth) Postulate.) For
example, in spherical geometry, all three sides of the
right triangle bounding an octant of the unit sphere have
length equal to 3.14 ; this violates the Euclidean
Pythagorean theorem because .

This means that in non-Euclidean geometry, the

Pythagorean theorem must necessarily take a different
form from the Euclidean theorem. There are two cases to
consider — spherical geometry and hyperbolic plane
geometry; in each case, as in the Euclidean case, the
result follows from the appropriate law of cosines:

For any right triangle on a sphere of radius R, the

Pythagorean Theorem takes the form
This equation can be derived as a special case of the
spherical law of cosines. By using the Maclaurin series for
the cosine function, it can be shown that as the radius R
approaches infinity, the spherical form of the Pythagorean
Theorem approaches the Euclidean form.

For any triangle in the hyperbolic plane (with Gaussian

curvature −1), the Pythagorean Theorem takes the form

where cosh is the hyperbolic cosine.

By using the Maclaurin series for this function, it can be

shown that as a hyperbolic triangle becomes very small
(i.e., as a, b, and c all approach zero), the hyperbolic form
of the Pythagorean Theorem approaches the Euclidean
form.

In hyperbolic geometry, for a right triangle one can also

write,
where is the angle of parallelism of the line segment AB
where μ is the multiplicative distance function (see
Hilbert's arithmetic of ends).

In hyperbolic trigonometry, the sine of the angle of

parallelism satisfies

Thus, the equation takes the form

Where a, b, and c are multiplicative distances of the sides

of the right triangle (Hartshorne, 2000).

In complex arithmetic

The Pythagoras formula is used to find the distance

between two points in the Cartesian coordinate plane,
and is valid if all coordinates are real: the distance
between the points (a, b) and (c, d) is
√((a − c)2 + (b − d)2). With complex coordinates, this
formula breaks down, e.g. the distance between the
points {0,1} and {i,0} would work out as 0, resulting in a
reductio ad absurdum. This is because this formula
depends on Pythagoras's theorem, which in all its proofs
depends on areas, and areas of triangles and other
geometrical figures depend on the edge lines of these
figures separating an inside from an outside, which does
not happen if the coordinates can be complex.

Instead, for the distance between the points (a, b) and

(c, d) it is usual to use:

(p and q are the real and imaginary parts of (a − c))

(r and s are the real and imaginary parts of (b − d))

Where is the complex conjugate of z. For example, the

distance between the points (0, 1) and (i, 0) would work
out as 0 if complex conjugates were not taken. But the
distance is

History
 This section needs additional citations for
verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable
references. Unsourced material may be challenged
and removed. (April 2008)

Visual proof for the (3, 4, 5) triangle as in the Chou

Pei Suan Ching 500–200 BC

The history of the theorem can be divided into

four parts: knowledge of Pythagorean triples, knowledge
of the relationship among the sides of a right triangle,
knowledge of the relationships among adjacent angles,
and proofs of the theorem.

Megalithic monuments from circa 2500 BC in

Egypt, and in Northern Europe, incorporate right triangles
with integer sides.[9] Bartel Leendert van der Waerden
conjectures that these Pythagorean triples were
discovered algebraically.[10]
 Written between 2000 and 1786 BC, the Middle
Kingdom Egyptian papyrus Berlin 6619 includes a
problem whose solution is a Pythagorean triple.

The Mesopotamian tablet Plimpton 322, written

between 1790 and 1750 BC during the reign of
Hammurabi the Great, contains many entries closely
related to Pythagorean triples.

The Baudhayana Sulba Sutra, the dates of which

are given variously as between the 8th century BC and
the 2nd century BC, in India, contains a list of
Pythagorean triples discovered algebraically, a statement
of the Pythagorean theorem, and a geometrical proof of
the Pythagorean theorem for an isosceles right triangle.

The Apastamba Sulba Sutra (circa 600 BC)

contains a numerical proof of the general Pythagorean
Theorem, using an area computation. Van der Waerden
believes that "it was certainly based on earlier traditions".
According to Albert Bŭrk, this is the original proof of the
theorem; he further theorizes that Pythagoras visited
Arakonam, India, and copied it.
 Pythagoras, whose dates are commonly given as
569–475 BC, used algebraic methods to construct
Pythagorean triples, according to Proklos's commentary
on Euclid. Proklos, however, wrote between 410 and 485
AD. According to Sir Thomas L. Heath, there was no
attribution of the theorem to Pythagoras for five centuries
after Pythagoras lived. However, when authors such as
Plutarch and Cicero attributed the theorem to Pythagoras,
they did so in a way which suggests that the attribution
was widely known and undoubted.[1]

Around 400 BC, according to Proklos, Plato gave

a method for finding Pythagorean triples that combined
algebra and geometry. Circa 300 BC, in Euclid's Elements,
the oldest extant axiomatic proof of the theorem is
presented.

Written sometime between 500 BC and 200

AD, the Chinese text Chou Pei Suan Ching (周髀算经), (The
Arithmetical Classic of the Gnomon and the Circular Paths
of Heaven) gives a visual proof of the Pythagorean
theorem — in China it is called the "Gougu Theorem" ( 勾
股 定 理 ) — for the (3, 4, 5) triangle. During the Han
Dynasty, from 202 BC to 220 AD, Pythagorean triples
appear in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art,
together with a mention of right triangles.[11]

The first recorded use is in China (where it is

alternately known as the "Shang Gao Theorem" ( 商 高 定
理 ), named after the Duke of Zhou's astrologer, and
described in the mathematical collection Zhou Bi Suan
Jing) and in India, where it is known as the Bhaskara
Theorem.

There is much debate on whether the

Pythagorean theorem was discovered once or many
times. Boyer (1991) thinks the elements found in the
Shulba Sutras may be of Mesopotamian derivation.[12]

Cultural references to the

Pythagorean Theorem

The Pythagorean Theorem has been

referenced in a variety of mass media throughout history.
• A verse of the Major-General's Song in the Gilbert
and Sullivan musical The Pirates of Penzance, "About
binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the
hypotenuse", with oblique reference to the theorem.
• The Scarecrow of The Wizard of Oz makes a more
specific reference to the theorem when he receives
his diploma from the Wizard. He immediately exhibits
his "knowledge" by reciting a mangled and incorrect
version of the theorem: "The sum of the square roots
of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to
the square root of the remaining side. Oh, joy, oh,
rapture. I've got a brain!" The "knowledge" exhibited
by the Scarecrow is incorrect. The accurate
statement would have been "The sum of the squares
of the legs of a right triangle is equal to the square of
the remaining side."[13]
• In an episode of The Simpsons, after finding a pair of
Henry Kissinger's glasses in a toilet at the Springfield
Nuclear Power Plant, Homer puts them on and quotes
Oz Scarecrow's mangled version of the formula. A
man in a nearby toilet stall then yells out "That's a
 right triangle, you idiot!" (The comment about square
roots remained uncorrected.)
• Similarly, the Speech software on an Apple MacBook
references the Scarecrow's incorrect statement. It is
the sample speech when the voice setting 'Ralph' is
selected.
• In Freemasonry, one symbol for a Past Master is the
diagram from the 47th Proposition of Euclid, used in
Euclid's proof of the Pythagorean Theorem.
• In 2000, Uganda released a coin with the shape of a
right triangle. The coin's tail has an image of
Pythagoras and the Pythagorean Theorem,
accompanied with the mention "Pythagoras
Millennium".[14] Greece, Japan, San Marino, Sierra
Leone, and Suriname have issued postage stamps
depicting Pythagoras and the Pythagorean theorem.
[15]

• In Neal Stephenson's speculative fiction Anathem,

the Pythagorean Theorem is referred to as 'the
Adrakhonic theorem'. A geometric proof of the
theorem is displayed on the side of an alien ship to
demonstrate their understanding of mathematics.
Pythagorean Theorem
The sum of the squares of the lengths of the two legs of a right triangle is equal to the
square of the length of the hypotenuse.
 There are 55 jobs that use Pythagorean Theorem.

Management Professional

Management occupations Computer and mathematical occupations

Computer and information systems managers Actuaries
Construction managers Computer software engineers
Engineering and natural sciences managers Mathematicians
Farmers, ranchers, and agricultural managers Statisticians
Funeral directors Architects, surveyors, and cartographers
Industrial production managers Architects, except landscape and naval
Medical and health services managers Landscape architects
Property, real estate, and community association Surveyors, cartographers, photogrammetrists, and
managers surveying technicians
Purchasing managers, buyers, and purchasing agents Engineers
Business and financial operations Aerospace engineers
occupations Chemical engineers
Insurance underwriters Civil engineers
Computer hardware engineers
Electrical engineers
Environmental engineers
Industrial engineers
Materials engineers
Mechanical engineers
Nuclear engineers

Drafters and engineering technicians

Drafters

Life scientists
 Biological scientists
Conservation scientists and foresters

Physical scientists
Atmospheric scientists
Chemists and materials scientists
Environmental scientists and hydrologists
Physicists and astronomers

Social scientists and related occupations

Economists

Legal occupations
Lawyers

Education, training, library, and museum

occupations
Archivists, curators, and museum technicians
Teachers-preschool, kindergarten, elementary,
middle, and secondary

Media and communications-related

occupations
Writers and editors

Health diagnosing and treating occupations

Optometrists
Physicians and surgeons
Registered nurses
Veterinarians

Health technologists and technicians

Opticians, dispensing
Veterinary technologists and technicians

Farming Construction

Farming Construction
Agricultural workers Carpenters
Construction and building inspectors
Electricians
Glaziers

Installation Production

Electrical and electronic equipment Metal workers and plastic workers

mechanics, installers, and repairers Machinists
Electrical and electronics installers and repairers Welding, soldering, and brazing workers
Electronic home entertainment equipment installers
and repairers

Other installation, maintenance, and repair

occupations
Millwrights

The Pythagorean Theorem

The Pythagorean Theorem was developed by the Greek
Philosopher Pythagoras and is used in every day situations. These tips
can ease the normal anxieties felt by students.

The words "Pythagorean Theorem" can sound incredibly

intimidating to typical middle school math students. What students may
not initially realize is that the Pythagorean Theorem is executed in
various daily situations, some that students may have already
experienced without realizing it. Introducing this concept using real life
examples can help set the stage for easier problem solving and a deeper
understanding and can hence help students appreciate the reasons why
it’s essential to learn this concept at all.

The Pythagorean Theorem consists of the following: The sum of

the squares of two legs of a right triangle is equal to the hypotenuse
squared.

For example, if one of the legs is 6 inches and the other leg is 7 inches,
we can calculate how long the hypotenuse, or the third leg is. Let a = 6,
b=7, and c= the length of the hypotenuse. (6)^2 + (7)^2 = c^2. 6*6=36,
and 7*7=49. Thus, 36 + 49 = 85. So, the square root of 85 is approximately
9.2 inches. Therefore, we just calculated the length of the hypotenuse using
this theorem.

The following consists of real life applications to introduce to students

which can greatly ease their anxieties and further promote their learning.

Baseball Diamond
If the teacher asks students how many of them play baseball or enjoy
baseball, the majority of boys in the classroom will more than likely raise
their hands. The teacher can utilize this concept by using an overhead
transparency, chalkboard, or other advanced technological device. In a
baseball diamond, the distance between each of the three bases and home
plate are 90 feet and all form right angles. If a teacher draws a line from
home plate to first base, then from first base to second base and back to the
home plate, the students can see a right triangle has been formed. Using
the Pythagorean Theorem, the teacher can then pose the question, "How far
does the second baseman have to throw the ball in order to get the runner
out before he slides into the home plate?" (90)^2 + (90)^2 = c^2, or the
distance from home plate to second base. 8100 + 8100 = 16,200. The
square root of 16,200 is approximately 127, so the second baseman would
have to throw it about 127 feet.
 Height of a Building
Firemen, construction workers, and other workers often rely on the use
of ladders in their line of work. They make use of the Pythagorean Theorem
in various situations. For example, the height to a second story window may
be 25 feet, and a window cleaner may need to put the ladder ten feet away
from the house in order to avoid the bushes or flowers. How long of a ladder
does the window cleaner need in order to achieve this task? (25)^2 +
(10)^2 = c^2, or the length of ladder needed. 625 + 100 = 725. The square
root of 725 is approximately 27, so the window cleaner would need a ladder
27 feet long.

Two friends meeting at a specific

 π
Pi has been known for almost 4000 years—
but even if we calculated the number of seconds
in those 4000 years and calculated pi to that
number of places, we would still only be
approximating its actual value. Here’s a brief
history of finding Pi:

The ancient Babylonians calculated the area of a

circle by taking 3 times the square of its radius, which
gave a value of pi = 3. One Babylonian tablet (ca.
1900–1680 BC) indicates a value of 3.125 for pi, which
is a closer approximation.
 A history of Pi
A little known verse of the Bible reads

And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one

brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height
was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it
about. (I Kings 7, 23)

The same verse can be found in II Chronicles 4, 2. It

occurs in a list of specifications for the great temple of
Solomon, built around 950 BC and its interest here is that
it gives π = 3. Not a very accurate value of course and
not even very accurate in its day, for the Egyptian and
25
Mesopotamian values of /8 = 3.125 and √10 = 3.162
have been traced to much earlier dates: though in
defence of Solomon's craftsmen it should be noted that
the item being described seems to have been a very
large brass casting, where a high degree of geometrical
precision is neither possible nor necessary. There are
some interpretations of this which lead to a much better
value.

The fact that the ratio of the circumference to the

diameter of a circle is constant has been known for so
long that it is quite untraceable. The earliest values of π
including the 'Biblical' value of 3, were almost certainly
found by measurement. In the Egyptian Rhind Papyrus,
which is dated about 1650 BC, there is good evidence for
4 (8/9)2 = 3.16 as a value for π.

The first theoretical calculation seems to have been

carried out by Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 BC). He
obtained the approximation

223 22
/71 < π < /7.

Before giving an indication of his proof, notice that very

considerable sophistication involved in the use of
inequalities here. Archimedes knew, what so many people
22
to this day do not, that π does not equal /7, and made no
claim to have discovered the exact value. If we take his
best estimate as the average of his two bounds we obtain
3.1418, an error of about 0.0002.

Here is Archimedes' argument.

Consider a circle of radius 1, in which we inscribe a
regular polygon of 3 2n-1 sides, with semiperimeter bn,
and superscribe a regular polygon of 3 2n-1 sides, with
semiperimeter an.

The diagram for the case n = 2 is on the right.

The effect of this procedure is to define an increasing

sequence

b1 , b2 , b3 , ...

and a decreasing sequence

a1 , a2 , a3 , ...

such that both sequences have limit π.

Using trigonometrical notation, we see that the two semi

perimeters are given by

an = K tan(π/K), bn = K sin(π/K),

where K = 3 2n-1. Equally, we have

an+1 = 2K tan(π/2K), bn+1 = 2K sin(π/2K),

and it is not a difficult exercise in trigonometry to show

that

(1/an + 1/bn) = 2/an+1 . . . (1)

an+1bn = (bn+1)2 . . . (2)

Archimedes, starting from a1 = 3 tan(π/3) = 3√3 and b1 =

3 sin(π/3) = 3√3/2, calculated a2 using (1), then b2 using
(2), then a3 using (1), then b3 using (2), and so on until he
had calculated a6 and b6. His conclusion was that

b 6 < π < a6 .

It is important to realize that the use of trigonometry here

is unhistorical: Archimedes did not have the advantage of
an algebraic and trigonometrical notation and had to
derive (1) and (2) by purely geometrical means. Moreover
he did not even have the advantage of our decimal
notation for numbers, so that the calculation of a6 and b6
from (1) and (2) was by no means a trivial task. So it was
a pretty stupendous feat both of imagination and of
calculation and the wonder is not that he stopped with
polygons of 96 sides, but that he went so far.

For of course there is no reason in principle why one

should not go on. Various people did, including:

(c. 150 3.14

Ptolemy AD) 16
Zu (430- 355
/113
Chongzhi 501 AD)
al-
3.14
Khwarizm (c. 800 )
16
i
14
(c.
al-Kashi place
1430)
s
9
(1540-
Viète place
1603)
s
 17
(1561-
Roomen place
1615)
s
35
Van (c.
place
Ceulen 1600)
s

Except for Zu Chongzhi, about whom next to nothing is

known and who is very unlikely to have known about
Archimedes' work, there was no theoretical progress
involved in these improvements, only greater stamina in
calculation. Notice how the lead, in this as in all scientific
matters, passed from Europe to the East for the
millennium 400 to 1400 AD.

Al-Khwarizmi lived in Baghdad, and incidentally gave his

name to 'algorithm', while the words al jabr in the title of
one of his books gave us the word 'algebra'. Al-Kashi lived
still further east, in Samarkand, while Zu Chongzhi, one
need hardly add, lived in China.

The European Renaissance brought about in due course a

whole new mathematical world. Among the first effects of
this reawakening was the emergence of mathematical
formulae for π. One of the earliest was that of Wallis
(1616-1703)

2/π = (1.3.3.5.5.7. ...)/(2.2.4.4.6.6. ...)

And one of the best-known is

π/4 = 1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + ....

This formula is sometimes attributed to Leibniz (1646-

1716) but is seems to have been first discovered by
James Gregory (1638- 1675).

These are both dramatic and astonishing formulae, for

the expressions on the right are completely arithmetical
in character, while π arises in the first instance from
geometry. They show the surprising results that infinite
processes can achieve and point the way to the wonderful
richness of modern mathematics.

From the point of view of the calculation of π, however,

neither is of any use at all. In Gregory's series, for
example, to get 4 decimal places correct we require the
error to be less than 0.00005 = 1/20000, and so we need
about 10000 terms of the series. However, Gregory also
showed the more general result
tan-1 x = x - x3/3 + x5/5 - ... (-1 ≤ x ≤ 1) . . . (3)

from which the first series results if we put x = 1. So

using the fact that

tan-1(1/√3) = π/6 we get

π/6 = (1/√3)(1 - 1/(3.3) + 1/(5.3.3) - 1/(7.3.3.3) + ...

Which converges much more quickly. The 10th term is 1/

(19 39√3), which is less than 0.00005, and so we have at
least 4 places correct after just 9 terms.

An even better idea is to take the formula

π/4 = tan-1(1/2) + tan-1(1/3) . . . (4)

and then calculate the two series obtained by putting first

1
/2 and the 1/3 into (3).

Clearly we shall get very rapid convergence indeed if we

can find a formula something like

π/4 = tan-1(1/a) + tan-1(1/b)

With a and b large. In 1706 Machin found such a formula:

π/4 = 4 tan-1(1/5) - tan-1(1/239) . . . (5)

Actually this is not at all hard to prove, if you know how to
prove (4) then there is no real extra difficulty about (5),
except that the arithmetic is worse. Thinking it up in the
first place is, of course, quite another matter.

With a formula like this available the only difficulty in

computing π is the sheer boredom of continuing the
calculation. Needless to say, a few people were silly
enough to devote vast amounts of time and effort to this
tedious and wholly useless pursuit. One of them, an
Englishman named Shanks, used Machin's formula to
calculate π to 707 places, publishing the results of many
years of labour in 1873. Shanks has achieved immortality
for a very curious reason which we shall explain in a
moment.
Here is a summary of how the improvement went:

169
Sharp used Gregory's result to get 71 correct digits
9:
170 Machin used an improvement to get 100 digits and
1: the following used his methods:
171
de Lagny found 112 correct digits
9:
178
Vega got 126 places and in 1794 got 136
9:
184 Rutherford calculated 152 digits and in 1853 got
1: 440
187 Shanks calculated 707 places of which 527 were
3: correct

A more detailed Chronology is available.

Shanks knew that π was irrational since this had

been proved in 1761 by Lambert. Shortly after Shanks'
calculation it was shown by Lindemann that π is
transcendental, that is, π is not the solution of any
polynomial equation with integer coefficients. In fact this
result of Lindemann showed that 'squaring the circle' is
impossible. The transcendentality of π implies that there
is no ruler and compass construction to construct a
square equal in area to a given circle.

Very soon after Shanks' calculation a curious

statistical freak was noticed by De Morgan, who found
that in the last of 707 digits there was a suspicious
shortage of 7's. He mentions this in his Budget of
Paradoxes of 1872 and a curiosity it remained until 1945
when Ferguson discovered that Shanks had made an
error in the 528th place, after which all his digits were
wrong. In 1949 a computer was used to calculate π to
2000 places. In this and all subsequent computer
expansions the number of 7's does not differ significantly
from its expectation, and indeed the sequence of digits
has so far passed all statistical tests for randomness.

You can see 2000 places of π.

We should say a little of how the notation π arose.

Oughtred in 1647 used the symbol d/π for the ratio of the
diameter of a circle to its circumference. David Gregory
(1697) used π/r for the ratio of the circumference of a
circle to its radius. The first to use π with its present
meaning was an Welsh mathematician William Jones in
1706 when he states "3.14159 andc. = π". Euler adopted
the symbol in 1737 and it quickly became a standard
notation.

We conclude with one further statistical curiosity about

the calculation of π, namely Buffon's needle experiment.
If we have a uniform grid of parallel lines, unit distance
apart and if we drop a needle of length k < 1 on the grid,
the probability that the needle falls across a line is 2k/π.
Various people have tried to calculate π by throwing
needles. The most remarkable result was that of Lazzerini
(1901), who made 34080 tosses and got

355
π= /113 = 3.1415929

Which, incidentally, is the value found by Zu Chongzhi.

This outcome is suspiciously good, and the game is given
away by the strange number 34080 of tosses. Kendall
and Moran comment that a good value can be obtained
by stopping the experiment at an optimal moment. If you
set in advance how many throws there are to be then this
is a very inaccurate way of computing π. Kendall and
Moran comment that you would do better to cut out a
large circle of wood and use a tape measure to find its
circumference and diameter.

Still on the theme of phoney experiments, Gridgeman, in

a paper which pours scorn on Lazzerini and others,
created some amusement by using a needle of carefully
chosen length k = 0.7857, throwing it twice, and hitting a
line once. His estimate for π was thus given by

2 0.7857 / π = 1/2

from which he got the highly creditable value of π =

3.1428. He was not being serious!
It is almost unbelievable that a definition of π was used,
at least as an excuse, for a racial attack on the eminent
mathematician Edmund Landau in 1934. Landau had
defined π in this textbook published in Göttingen in that
year by the, now fairly usual, method of saying that π/2 is
the value of x between 1 and 2 for which cos x vanishes.
This unleashed an academic dispute which was to end in
Landau's dismissal from his chair at Göttingen.
Bieberbach, an eminent number theorist who disgraced
himself by his racist views, explains the reasons for
Landau's dismissal:-

Thus the valiant rejection by the Göttingen student body

which a great mathematician, Edmund Landau, has
experienced is due in the final analysis to the fact that
the un-German style of this man in his research and
teaching is unbearable to German feelings. A people who
have perceived how members of another race are
working to impose ideas foreign to its own must refuse
teachers of an alien culture.

G H Hardy replied immediately to Bieberbach in a

published note about the consequences of this un-
German definition of π
There are many of us, many Englishmen and many
Germans, who said things during the War which we
scarcely meant and are sorry to remember now. Anxiety
for one's own position, dread of falling behind the rising
torrent of folly, determination at all cost not to be
outdone, may be natural if not particularly heroic
excuses. Professor Bieberbach's reputation excludes such
explanations of his utterances, and I find myself driven to
the more uncharitable conclusion that he really believes
them true.

Not only in Germany did π present problems. In the USA

the value of π gave rise to heated political debate. In the
State of Indiana in 1897 the House of Representatives
unanimously passed a Bill introducing a new
mathematical truth.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of

Indiana: It has been found that a circular area is to the
square on a line equal to the quadrant of the
circumference, as the area of an equilateral rectangle is
to the square of one side.
(Section I, House Bill No. 246, 1897)
The Senate of Indiana showed a little more sense and
postponed indefinitely the adoption of the Act!

****END***