Kurdistan regional government

University of cihan

Subject
Pythagoras

preapared by
hojin shafiq shahbaz

group /1/A

2024/2023
Pythagoras Biography
Born: c. 575 B.C.E.
Samos, Greece
Died: c. 495 B.C.E.
Metapontum
Greek philosopher, scientist, and religious scholar
The Greek philosopher, scientist, and religious teacher Pythagoras developed a school of thought that
accepted the passage of the soul into another body and established many influential mathematical and
philosophical theories.

Early life
Born on the island of Samos, off Greece, in the Mediterranean Sea, Pythagoras was the son of
Mnesarchus. Little is known about his early life. After studying in Greece, he fled to southern Italy to
escape the harsh rule of Polycrates (died c. 522 B.C.E. ), who came to power about 538 B.C.E. Pythagoras
is said to have traveled to Egypt and Babylon during this time.
Pythagoras and his followers became politically powerful in Croton in southern Italy, where
Pythagoras had established a school for his newly formed sect, or group of followers. It is probable
that the Pythagoreans took positions in the local government in order to lead men to the pure life that
was directed by their teachings. Eventually, however, a rival group launched an attack on the
Pythagoreans at a gathering of the sect, and the group was almost completely destroyed. Pythagoras
either had been forced to leave Croton or had left voluntarily shortly before this attack. He died in
Metapontum early in the fifth century B.C.E.

Religious teachings
Pythagoras and his followers were important for their contributions to both religion and science. His
religious teachings were based on the doctrine (teaching) of metempsychosis, which teaches that the
soul never dies and is destined to a cycle of rebirths until it is able to free itself from the cycle through
the purity of its life.
Pythagoreanism differed from the other philosophical systems of its time in being not merely an
intellectual search for truth but a whole way of life which would lead to salvation, or to be delivered
from sin. An important part of Pythagoreanism was the relationship of all life. A universal life spirit
was thought to be present in animal and vegetable life, although there is no evidence to show that
Pythagoras believed that the soul could be born in the form of a plant. It could be born, however, in
the body of an animal, and Pythagoras claimed to have heard the voice of a dead friend in the howl of
a dog being beaten.
Mathematical teachings
The Pythagoreans presented as fact the dualism (that life is controlled by opposite forces) between
Limited and Unlimited. It
Pythagoras’ theorem
mc-TY-pythagoras-2009-1

Pythagoras’ theorem is well-known from schooldays. In this unit we revise the theorem and use it to
solve problems involving right-angled triangles. We will also meet a less-familiar form of the theorem.

In order to master the techniques explained here it is vital that you undertake plenty of practice
exercises so that they become second nature.

After reading this text, and/or viewing the video tutorial on this topic, you should be able to:

• state Pythagoras’ theorem

• use Pythagoras’ theorem to solve problems involving right-angled triangles.

Contents
1. Introduction 2
2. The theorem of Pythagoras a2 +b2 =c2 2

3. A further application of the theorem 5

4. Applications in cartesian geometry 6
 5. A final result: 7

1. Introduction
The Theorem of Pythagoras is a well-known theorem. It is also a very old one, not only does it bear
the name of Pythagoras, an ancient Greek, but it was also known to the ancient Babylonians and to the
ancient Egyptians. Most school students learn of it as a2 + b2 = c2. The actual statement of the theorem
is more to do with areas. So, let’s have a look at the statement of the theorem.

2. The Theorem of Pythagoras

The theorem makes reference to a right-angled triangle such as that shown in Figure 1. The side
opposite the right-angle is the longest side and is called the hypotenuse.

Figure 1. A right-angled triangle with hypotenuse shown.

What the theorem says is that the area of the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the areas
of the squares on the two shorter sides. Figure 2 shows squares drawn on the hypotenuse and on the
two shorter sides. The theorem tells us that area A + area B = area C.

c
a

Figure 2. A right-angled triangle with squares drawn on each side.

An excellent demonstration of this is available on the accompanying video. If we denote the lengths
of the sides of the triangle as a, b and c, as shown, then area A = a2, area B = b2 and area C = c2. So,
using Pythagoras’ theorem

area A + area B = area C a2 + b2 =

c2
This is the traditional result.

Key Point

a2 + b2 = c2 a c

Example
Suppose we wish to find the length of the hypotenuse of the right-angled triangle shown in Figure 4.
We have labelled the hypotenuse c.

a=3 b=4

Figure 4.
Using the theorem:

a2 + b2 = c2
32 + 42 = c2
9 + 16 = c2
25 = c2
5=c

So 5 is the length of the hypotenuse, the longest side of the triangle.

Example
In this Example we will assume we know the length of the hypotenuse.

z =13
x =5

y
 Figure 5.
The corresponding statement of Pythagoras’ theorem is x2 + y2 = z2. So,
x2 + y2 = z2
52 + y2 = 132
25 + y2 = 169
y2 = 144
√
y = 144 = 12
So, 12 is the length of the unknown side.
Example
Suppose we wish to find the length q in Figure 6. The statement of the theorem is now
p 2 + q2 = r 2

r =17

q
p =15 Figure
6.

p2 + q2 = r2
152 + q2 = 172
225 + q2 = 289
q2 = 64
q =8
So, 8 is the length of the unknown side.
In each of these three Examples, the answers have been exact and they have been whole number values.
These whole number triples, ((3,4,5), (5,12,13), (8,15,17)), or Pythagorean triples, as we call them,
occur quite frequently. When you do questions like these, you probably won’t be so lucky to get exact
answers as we have done here; you almost certainly will have to use a calculator for many of them and
you have to decide to approximate the answer to a given number of decimal places or a given number
of significant figures.
Exercise 1
1. Determine, to 2 decimal places, the length of the hypotenuses of the right-angled triangleswhose
two shorter sides have the lengths given below.
a) 5 cm, 12 cm b) 1 cm, 2 cm c) 3 cm, 4 cm
d) 1 cm, 1 cm e) 1.73 cm, 1 cm f) 2 cm, 5 cm
2. Determine, to 2 decimal places, the length of the third sides of the right-angled triangleswhere
the hypotenuse and other side have the lengths given below.
a) 8 cm, 2 cm b) 5 cm, 4 cm c) 2 cm, 1 cm
d) 6 cm, 5 cm e) 10 cm, 7 cm f) 1 cm, 0.5 cm
3. A further application of the theorem
Let’s have a look at another application of Pythagoras’ theorem.
Look at the cuboid shown in Figure 7. Suppose we wish to find the length, y, of the diagonal of this
cuboid. This is the bold line in Figure 7. Note that ABC is a right-angled triangle with the right-angle
at C. Note also, that ACD is a right-angled triangle with hypotenuse AC. Let AC have length x, as
shown.

y 12

x =5

3 4

Figure 7.
Referrring to triangle ACD and using Pythagoras’ theorem:

32 + 42 = x2
9 + 16 = x2 x2 =
25 x = 5

Now let the length of the diagonal AB be y. Using Pythagoras’ theorem in triangle ABC:

52 + 122 = y2
25 + 144 = y2
169 = y2 y = √169 =

13

So we can use the theorem of Pythagoras in 3-dimensions; we can use it to solve problems that are set
up in 3-dimensional objects.
Exercise 2

1. Calculate the length of the diagonals of the following cuboids

a) 2 × 3 × 4 b) 1 × 1 × 3 c) 5 × 5 × 5
Give your answers to 2 decimal places.
4. Applications in cartesian geometry
Cartesian geometry is geometry that is set out on a plane that uses cartesian co-ordinates. These are
the familiar (x,y) coordinates you will have seen before. We have already seen that Pythagoras’
theorem gives us a relationship which is satisfied between the lengths of the sides of a right-angled
triangle. However, we can turn this theorem around. If we study any triangle, and find that the area of
the square on the longest side is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares on the two shorter sides
of the triangle, then the triangle must be right-angled. So we can use Pythagoras’ theorem to tell
whether a triangle is right-angled or not.
Example
Suppose we have the co-ordinates of three points:

(3,4) (2,6) (1,0)

Can we use Pythagoras’ theorem to find out whether they form the corners of a right-angled triangle ?
The points are plotted in Figure 8. Looking at Figure 8 we might guess that the triangle does contain
a right-angle, but we can’t be sure. The scales on the two axes are not quite the same and so
appearances can be deceptive.
y
B (2, 6)
6
5

C (3, 4) 4
3

2
1
A(1, 0)
x
0 1 2 3

Figure 8.
From Figure 8 note that
(AB)2 = 12 + 62 = 1 + 36
= 37
(BC)2 = 22 + 12 = 4 + 1
=5

(AC)2 = 22 + 42 = 4 + 16
= 20

Now ask the question. Do the squares of the shorter sides add together to give the square of the longer
side ?
(AC)2 + (BC)2 = 5 + 20 = 25 = 376

So we do not have a right-angled triangle. In fact because the longest side, AB, is greater than that
which would be required to form a right-angle (i.e. ) we can deduce that the angle at C is in
fact greater than 90 . Thus C is an obtuse angle. This is not immediately obvious from a sketch.
◦

Exercise 3
 1. The lengths of the sides of a number of different triangles are given below. In each
case,determine whether the largest angle is obtuse, right angle or acute.
a) 1, 1, 1 b) 1, 1, 2 c) 4, 3, 2 d) 5, 7, 9
e) 5, 12, 13 f) 2, 6, 4 g) 8, 10, 6 h) 1, 2, 2
2. The co-ordinates of the vertices of a number of triangles are given below. In each case,determine
if the triangle is right angled.
a) (1,2), (2,3), (5,0) b) (2,1), (4,2), (2,6) c) (3,2), (5,1), (2,5)

5. A final result
Finally, the fact that Pythagoras’ Theorem is about squares is fairly well-known. What is not so well-
known, although it is fairly obvious once you have seen it, is that if you take any regular figure or
similar figures and place them on the sides of a right-angled triangle, then the area of the figure on the
hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the areas of the figures on the two shorter sides. Consider, for
example, Figure 9 where we have drawn semi-circles on each side of the right-angled triangle.

C
B c
b

a
A

Figure 9. Semi-circles drawn on the sides of the right-angled triangle.

From the formula for the area of a circle:

Area of

Area of

Area of
and so

Area of A + Area of
But from Pythagoras’ theorem a2 + b2 = c2 and so

Area of A + Area of
= Area of C

and so it is true that Area of A + Area of B = Area of C.

Answers
Exercise 1
1. a) 13 cm b) 2.24 cm c) 5 cmd) 1.41 cm e) 2.00 cm f) 5.39 cm
2. a) 7.75 cm b) 3 cm c) 1.73 cm d) 3.32 cm e) 7.14 cm f) 0.87 cm

Exercise 2
1. a) 5.39 b) 3.32 c) 8.66

Exercise 3
1. a) acute b) obtuse c) obtuse d) obtuse e) right angle f) obtuse g) right angle h) acute 2. a) Yes b)
Yes c) No