User:MatthewJohnson

My name is Matthew Johnson, I am a first year studying commerce from Seattle and England. I live in Place Vanier on campus and I love to play the drums and piano. In general, I am just a big fan of music, and hopefully one day will be able to combine music and business. I also really enjoy sports and the more extreme things in life. Hit me up if you ever want to go skydiving!

Pythagorean Theorem

Everybody knows that A^2 + B^2 = C^2. It was one of the first things we learned in geometry way back in high school. It seems so simple but the actual discovery and of course the proving of this theory were much more difficult. Pythagoras, the alleged creator of the theory, was supposedly born on the Greek island of Samos. After settling in Italy, he created a sect of scholars called the Pythagoreans, who believed in the power of numbers. While the Pythagoreans hold the name of the theory, it is not for sure that they invented it, only that they proved it. They did so by thinking of a right triangle as three seperate squares. One side of each square made the three sides of the triangle. If we can agree the one side of a square times itself makes the area of the sqaure, then we can say that A^2 is the area of square A. The thing that they noticed was that the areas of squares A and B were equal to square C. Downsizing from squares they could then prove what came to be known as the Pythagorean Theorem.

Sites Used:

http://www.cut-the-knot.org/pythagoras/ http://www.notablebiographies.com/Pu-Ro/Pythagoras.html