The Pythagorean Theorem - Educational Outreach

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3.6) The Theorems of Heron, Pappus,Kurrah, and StewartThe Pythagorean Theorem uses as its starting pointa right triangle. Suppose a triangle is not a right triangle.What can we say about relationships amongst the variousparts of a triangle’s anatomy: sides, areas, and altitudes?Most students of mathematics can recite the two basicformulas as presented in Figure 3.7. Are there other factsthat one can glean?Area 21chPerimeter a b cahcbFigure 3.7: The Two Basic Triangle FormulasIn this section, we will look at four investigations into thisvery question spanning a period of approximately 1700years. Three of the associated scientists andmathematicians—Heron, Pappus, and Stewart—are new toour study. We have previously introduced Kurrah in Section2.4.Heron, also known as Hero of Alexandria, was aphysicist, mathematician, and engineer who lived in the 1 stcentury ACE.Figure 3.8: Schematic of Hero’s Steam Engine104
Hero was the founder of the Higher Technical School at thethen world-renown center of learning at Alexandria, Egypt.He invented the first steam engine, schematically depictedin Figure 3.8, a device that rotated due to the thrustgenerated by steam exiting through two nozzlesdiametrically placed on opposite sides of the axis ofrotation. Working models of Hero’s steam engine are stillsold today as tabletop scientific collectables.In his role as an accomplished mathematician,Heron (as he is better known in mathematical circles)discovered one of the great results of classical mathematics,a general formula for triangular area known as Heron’sTheorem. Heron did not originally use the PythagoreanTheorem to prove his result. Both the Pythagorean Theoremand Heron’s Theorem are independent and co-equal resultsin that each can be derived without the use of the other andeach can be used to prove the other. In this section, we willshow how the Pythagorean Theorem, coupled with ‘heavy’analytic geometry, is used to render the truth of Heron’sTheorem. First, we state Heron’s historic result.Heron’s Theorem: Suppose a general triangle (a trianglehaving no special angles such as right angles) has threesides whose lengths are a , b , and c respectively. Lets [ a b c]/ 2 be the semi-perimeter for the same. Thenthe internal area A enclosed by the general triangle, Figure3.9, is given by the formula:A s( s a)(s b)(s c).ac xh xcbFigure 3.9: Diagram for Heron’s Theorem105
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The PythagoreanTheoremCrown Jewel o
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The Pythagorean TheoremCrown Jewel
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Table of ContentsList of Tables and
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List of Tables and FiguresTablesNum
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Figures…continuedNumber and Title
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List of Proofs and DevelopmentsSect
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PrefaceThe Pythagorean Theorem has
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1 : 2x2x2****22 13x 7 13x 7 0 : a
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1) Consider the Squares“If it was
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s090045 0ss45450450090Figure 1.3: O
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Notice that the right-triangle prop
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The middle square (minus the donut
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Our proof in Chapter 1 has been by
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2) Four Thousand Years of Discovery
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The proof Pythagoras is thought to
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cabcFigure 2.4: Annotated Square wi
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Figure 2.6 is the diagram for a sec
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1x:b2:Area(CBA)3:Area( ABC)Area(ABC
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Euclid’s proof of the Pythagorean
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First we establish that the two tri
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1 2y b b: y b c c2:A3:A4:Aunshaded
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XB'A090 CBFigure 2.12: Euclid’s C
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2.3) Liu Hui Packs the SquaresLiu H
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One of my favorites was Boxel, a ga
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2.4) Kurrah Transforms the Bride’
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Note: as is the occasional custom i
Page 55 and 56: 2.5) Bhaskara Unleashes the Power o
Page 57 and 58: 2.6) Leonardo da Vinci’s Magnific
Page 59 and 60: In Figure 2.24, we enlarge Step 5 a
Page 61 and 62: But, this is precisely the nature o
Page 63 and 64: 2.8) Henry Perigal’s TombstoneHen
Page 65 and 66: In the century following Perigal, b
Page 67 and 68: Returning to Henry Perigal, Figure
Page 69 and 70: Figure 2.32 is President Garfield
Page 71 and 72: Even though the Cartesian coordinat
Page 73 and 74: B 2← γ →α y βx C-xC 2Figure
Page 75 and 76: Being polynomial in form, the funct
Page 77 and 78: Thus, the critical point ( C 2 ,0)i
Page 79 and 80: Sincexcpwas chosen on an arbitrary
Page 81 and 82: ∂F/∂x = ∂F/∂y = 0x(C - x) 2
Page 83 and 84: Define a new function21 A2 A3 2xcp
Page 85 and 86: 2.11) Shear, Shape, and AreaOur las
Page 87 and 88: Step 1: Cut the big square into two
Page 89 and 90: In Table 2.3, we briefly summarize
Page 91 and 92: We can formally state this similari
Page 93 and 94: What we will do in Section 3.2 is p
Page 95 and 96: There are three Pythagorean-triple
Page 97 and 98: Thus, if we multiply any given prim
Page 99 and 100: The last equality shows that the in
Page 101 and 102: A Pythagorean Quartet is a set of f
Page 103 and 104: 3.5) Pythagoras and the Three Means
Page 105: yxy MHxab2ab2 y x FC y ab2ab 2ab y
Page 109 and 110: 5 : Solve for area using the formul
Page 111 and 112: 4 : Construct the parallelogram wit
Page 113 and 114: We already have introduced Thabit i
Page 115 and 116: Some historians believe Stewart’s
Page 117 and 118: In pre-computer days, both all four
Page 119 and 120: One example of a periodic process i
Page 121 and 122: The six trigonometric functions are
Page 123 and 124: The following four relationships ar
Page 125 and 126: As with any set of identities, the
Page 127 and 128: Figure 3.17 can be used as a jumpin
Page 129 and 130: The remaining two pillars are the L
Page 131 and 132: a2Law of Cosines c2 b2 2bccos()The
Page 133 and 134: An example of a Diophantine equatio
Page 136 and 137: However, Euler’s Conjecture did n
Page 138 and 139: 4) Pearls of Fun and WonderPearls o
Page 140 and 141: We have achieved five-digit accurac
Page 142 and 143: 140212213116)74370116)(74370(370)74
Page 144 and 145: X X X X O X X O X XO X X O O OO X O
Page 146 and 147: 4.3) Earth, Moon, Sun, and StarsIn
Page 148 and 149: The four-step solution follows. All
Page 150 and 151: Figure 4.9 depicts Eratosthenes’
Page 152 and 153: ---High above the earth, we see the
Page 154 and 155: The commonly accepted value is abou
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1BC : tan( BAC)BABC BAtan(BAC)0BC
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BD ACtan( 21 )Even for the closest
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3w 2h s w 5 s w 0.38196s&5 1s
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Figure 4.16: Triangular Phi---The h
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What remains to be done is to devel
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3 : h32 4 h222 2 24C 2 h33162 2 2
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Epilogue: The Crown and the Jewels
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Not only has it endured, but the Py
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A] Greek AlphabetGREEK LETTERUpper
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C] Geometric FoundationsThe Paralle
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8. Congruent Triangles: Two triangl
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3. Rectangle: A bh : P 2b 2h, b &
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Recreational Mathematics11. Pickove
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GGolden RatioDefined and algebraica
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Puzzles (cont)Pythagorean Magic Squ
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Pythagorean Theorem ProofsAlgebraic
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Trigonometry (cont)Eratosthenes mea
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