Pythagoras :: essays research papers

Pythagoras   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pythagoras was a very significant person in the history of the world. He made many contributions to the fields of math, music, and astronomy. Pythagoras's teachings and beliefs that were once taught by him in his own school in ancient Greece, are still taught today.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The thing that Pythagoras is probably the most famous for is the Pythagorean Theorem. The Pythagorean Theorem is used in the field of mathematics and it states the following: the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the two other sides. This means that if one makes a square (with all sides equal in length) out of a triangle with a right angle, the areas of the squares made from the two shorter sides, when added together, equal the area of the square made from the long side. Another geometrical discovery made by Pythagoras is that the diagonal of a square is not a rational multiple of its side. The latter discovery proved the existence of irrational numbers and therefore changed the entire Greek mathematical belief that whole numbers and their ratios could account for geometrical properties.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another contribution of Pythagoras and his follower is that of music. Pythagoras essentially created music in that he discovered the way it works. Pythagoras noticed that vibrating strings produce harmonious tones when the ratios of the lengths of the strings are whole numbers. After making this discovery, he found that these same ratios could be extended further to other instruments.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pythagoras was one of the first to teach that the Earth was at the center of the universe. He was also one of the first to teach that the world was round, an idea not to be proven for almost another one thousand years. Pythagoras also discovered that the orbit of the moon is inclined to the equator of the Earth. He also was the first person to make the connection that Venus as