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>Pythagoras did not discover the theorem - it dates back to the Egyptians or Babylonians, and it was written of in a fairly extensive manner in India hundreds o

>Pythagoras did not discover the theorem - it dates back to the Egyptians or Babylonians, and it was written of in a fairly extensive manner in India hundreds of years before Pythagoras as well. Ah, see viewpoints like these are why I suppose I take offense to the whole gist of this entire conversation. Pythagoras absolutely did discover the theorem. Unless you can provide evidence that he was aware or attributed it to other regions or mathematicians? The Egyptians and Babylonians also discovered it as well. Convergent discoveries can occur. Your main notion is (I presume) about who discovered it first. Which is arguably somewhat of an important nomenclature. But then let me ask you this: How much weight can we attribute to the significance of this discovery to the Egyptians and Babylonians? When its Pythagoras' pupils and followers, benefactors and historians, who put his theorem to practical application and developed it further? Do we value the man who discovered the wheel, or the man who realized he could take that wheel, duplicate it, put a shaft between, and cart more things around? What about the man who taught others to do that? Pythagoras was part of an institution of like minded thinkers which educated the ancient world (if you want to get pedantic, they were glorified tutors to rich kids, but they still got paid to think and spread their knowledge nonetheless). Their preserved writings arguably lay the foundations of western thought. That by itself, in my opinion, lends quite a lot of weight to the importance of his attribution to the discovery of the theorem, and why I feel like you've slighted Pythagoras more than you realize.

lern_too_spel 5y ago
> Pythagoras absolutely did discover the theorem. There is very little historical record of Pythagoras because he led a cult that was sworn to secrecy. He almost certainly did not discover the theorem himself.
cthalupa 5y ago
>Pythagoras absolutely did discover the theorem. Unless you can provide evidence that he was aware or attributed it to other regions or mathematicians? Well, to answer this we have to talk a bit about Pythagoras himself: We have basically zero ability to talk about him in general with any historical certainty. The original historical depictions of him even portray him as more of a mystic than a mathematician. The historical evidence for Pythagoras studying in Egypt prior to the theorem being created is about as strong as any other evidence we have for things Pythagoras did, in which case, it is as plausible he learned it while there as anything else we know about him. But then we have other problems: The first mention of the theorem being attributed to him doesn't appear in the historical record until centuries after his death. We have no direct evidence he was responsible for the (re)discovery of this theorem to begin with, so it might be a moot point that he might have studied in Egypt. He's also written as having studied with the Mesopotamians, the Persians, the Galatians, the Indians, and the Assyrians, as well as multiple others, for years to decades each. These can't all be true. >How much weight can we attribute to the significance of this discovery to the Egyptians and Babylonians? When its Pythagoras' pupils and followers, benefactors and historians, who put his theorem to practical application and developed it further? Do we value the man who discovered the wheel, or the man who realized he could take that wheel, duplicate it, put a shaft between, and cart more things around? What about the man who taught others to do that? This all rings of having a very Western-centric view of the world. The Babylonians put it to practical use in land disputes. The Egyptians did as well - it would have been quite handy in building the pyramids. In India, it was originally used for properly spacing things for Vedic rituals, but was later used for architecture and a variety of other things. And this is quite simply a good view of why this is an issue: Your education focused on the Western uses of the theorem, giving you the mistaken idea that the practical application and spread of knowledge was limited to the West, when that simply isn't the case. It's not your fault - we're all products of our education to an extent, and I felt the exact same way for a long time. That's a large part about what Durham U and others are trying to fix with this sort of thing.

lern_too_spel 5y ago

> Pythagoras absolutely did discover the theorem. There is very little historical record of Pythagoras because he led a cult that was sworn to secrecy. He almost certainly did not discover the theorem himself.

cthalupa 5y ago

>Pythagoras absolutely did discover the theorem. Unless you can provide evidence that he was aware or attributed it to other regions or mathematicians? Well, to answer this we have to talk a bit about Pythagoras himself: We have basically zero ability to talk about him in general with any historical certainty. The original historical depictions of him even portray him as more of a mystic than a mathematician. The historical evidence for Pythagoras studying in Egypt prior to the theorem being created is about as strong as any other evidence we have for things Pythagoras did, in which case, it is as plausible he learned it while there as anything else we know about him. But then we have other problems: The first mention of the theorem being attributed to him doesn't appear in the historical record until centuries after his death. We have no direct evidence he was responsible for the (re)discovery of this theorem to begin with, so it might be a moot point that he might have studied in Egypt. He's also written as having studied with the Mesopotamians, the Persians, the Galatians, the Indians, and the Assyrians, as well as multiple others, for years to decades each. These can't all be true. >How much weight can we attribute to the significance of this discovery to the Egyptians and Babylonians? When its Pythagoras' pupils and followers, benefactors and historians, who put his theorem to practical application and developed it further? Do we value the man who discovered the wheel, or the man who realized he could take that wheel, duplicate it, put a shaft between, and cart more things around? What about the man who taught others to do that? This all rings of having a very Western-centric view of the world. The Babylonians put it to practical use in land disputes. The Egyptians did as well - it would have been quite handy in building the pyramids. In India, it was originally used for properly spacing things for Vedic rituals, but was later used for architecture and a variety of other things. And this is quite simply a good view of why this is an issue: Your education focused on the Western uses of the theorem, giving you the mistaken idea that the practical application and spread of knowledge was limited to the West, when that simply isn't the case. It's not your fault - we're all products of our education to an extent, and I felt the exact same way for a long time. That's a large part about what Durham U and others are trying to fix with this sort of thing.