The Pythagorean Theorem - Educational Outreach

2.4) Kurrah Transforms the Bride’s ChairOur youngest son loved Transformers as a child,and our oldest son was somewhat fond of them too. Forthose of you who may not remember, a transformer is amechanical toy that can take on a variety of shapes—e.g.from truck to robot to plane to boat—depending how youtwist and turn the various appendages. The idea oftransforming shapes into shapes is not new, even thoughthe 1970s brought renewed interest in the form of highlymarketable toys for the children of Baby Boomers. Eventoday, a new league of Generation X parents are digging intheir pockets and shelling out some hefty prices for thoseirresistible Transformers.Thabit ibn Kurrah (836-901), a Turkish-bornmathematician and astronomer, lived in Baghdad duringIslam’s Era of Enlightenment paralleling Europe’s DarkAges. Kurrah (also Qurra or Qorra) developed a clever andoriginal proof of the Pythagorean Theorem along with a nonrighttriangle extension of the same (Section 3.6) Kurrah’sproof has been traditionally classified as a dissection proof.Then again, Kurrah’s proof can be equally classified as atransformer proof. Let’s have a look.The Bride’s ChairFigure 2.16: Kurrah Creates the Bride’s Chair49