Pythagoras Facts
Pythagoras Facts
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| Interesting Pythagoras Facts: |
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| Not much accurate information is known about Pythagoras, since his life and works weren't recorded until centuries after his death. |
| Like many learned Greek researchers and philosophers, he probably traveled extensively as a young man, leaving his island of Samos for Egypt, Africa, and other parts surrounded by the Mediterranean. |
| He founded his religion in Croton around 530 BC, but he and his followers were widely persecuted for their religious views and political involvement. |
| Core principles of his religious beliefs stated that everything is related to mathematics and numbers, a principle held by his followers. |
| It is believed that Pythagoras was the first person to refer to himself as a philosopher, whose word origins mean "lover of ideas." |
| In the late sixth century BC, Pythagoras made crucial contributions to modern philosophy, as well as mathematics, science, and religious mysticism. |
| He is most widely known for the Pythagorean theorem, which states that "a right-angled triangle the area of the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares of the other two sides," in other words, A2 + B2=C2. |
| This theorem is believed to have been used by the ancient Babylonians and the Indians, although their use of this is based on evidence of the understanding of the principle, and not on recorded writings. |
| However, due to the lack of recorded evidence of his life, some researchers believe that Pythagoras' important contributions may have actually been founded by his students, followers, or contemporaries, as his religion continued to spread for some time; his followers were known as Pythagoreans, hence the ideas being attributed to him. |
| The highly-secretive nature of Pythagoras' school has made it difficult to discern what role he actually played in discovering the theorem. |
| Popular belief holds that Pythagoras also made important contributions in medicine, music, astronomy, and divination. |
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