User:ChristopherWong

Hey my name's Chris, I'm currently in my first year at UBC, enrolled in the faculty of arts. I look forward to having a great school year whether it is meeting new people, playing sports, joining clubs or just learning new things!

The Pythagorean Theorem

The Pythagorean Theorem is a formula that explains the relationship between the lengths of the sides of a right angle triangle. Created by Greek mathematician, Pythagoras, the theorem is stated as a2 + b2 = c2.

The theorem illustrates how in a right angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse which is the longest side of a triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. Where in the equation a2 + b2 = c2, c refers to the hypotenuse while a and b being the other two sides. The theorem itself is the most fundamental of all geometric theorems, where using algebra we can find any missing value as long as we have the information concerning two sides of a right angled triangle.

Besides finding a missing length of a triangle, we can also make use of the theorem to find the diagonal distance across a square or a rectangle. Also the theorem can be used to see if a triangle is indeed right angled. By substituting the values of three sides into the equation and seeing if it equates we can see if a triangle has a right angle.

sources: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PythagoreanTheorem.html

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_theorem