Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
In mathematics, the Pythagorean theorem or Pythagoras' theorem is a fundamental relation in Euclidean geometry between the three sides of a right triangle.It states that 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 on the other two sides.
Possible geometric basis for a solution of IM 67118. Solid lines of the figure show stage 1; dashed lines and shading show stage 2. The central square has side b − a. The light gray region is the gnomon of area A = ab. The dark gray square (of side (b − a)/2) completes the gnomon to a square of side (b + a)/2.
The area can be calculated by the standard formula for the area of right triangles (half the product of the two short sides) as . The cosine of the larger of the two non-right angles is the ratio of the adjacent side (the shorter of the two sides) to the hypotenuse, φ {\displaystyle \varphi } , from which it follows that the two non-right ...
If the apex of the pyramid is directly above the center of the square, it is a right square pyramid with four isosceles triangles; otherwise, it is an oblique square pyramid. When all of the pyramid's edges are equal in length, its triangles are all equilateral. It is called an equilateral square pyramid, an example of a Johnson solid.
The Bride's chair proof of the Pythagorean theorem, that is, the proof of the Pythagorean theorem based on the Bride's Chair diagram, is given below. The proof has been severely criticized by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer as being unnecessarily complicated, with construction lines drawn here and there and a long line of deductive ...
As a consequence of the Pythagorean theorem, the hypotenuse is the longest side of any right triangle; that is, the hypotenuse is longer than either of the triangle's legs. For example, given the length of the legs a = 5 and b = 12, then the sum of the legs squared is (5 × 5) + (12 × 12) = 169, the square of the hypotenuse.
Chapter 10 describes Pythagorean triangles with a side or area that is a square or cube, connecting this problem to Fermat's Last Theorem. After a chapter on Heronian triangles , Chapter 12 returns to this theme, discussing triangles whose hypotenuse and sum of sides are squares.
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). Although Pythagoras is most famous today for his alleged mathematical discoveries, [132] [207] classical historians dispute whether he himself ever actually made any significant contributions to the field.