Wikipedia says there are three different stories about what Hippasus discovered and what happened to him as a result, and that all of these are likely false. h

Wikipedia says there are three different stories about what Hippasus discovered and what happened to him as a result, and that all of these are likely false. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippasus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippasus (I've met Simon Singh; he's a great entertainer, but he's the last person I'd cite for something like this :-) Another story I've read about the theorem was that Pythagoras himself discovered it, and sacrificed oxen because it upset his world view. http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/~demo5337/Group3/hist.html http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/~demo5337/Group3/hist.html