PythagorasPythagoras was a very significant person in the history of the world. He made many contributions to the fields of math, music, and astronomy. Pythagoras’s teachings and beliefs that were once taught by him in his ownschool in ancient Greece, are still taught today.
The thing that Pythagoras is probably the most famous for is thePythagorean Theorem. The Pythagorean Theorem is used in the field ofmathematics and it states the following: the square of the hypotenuse of aright triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the two other sides. Thismeans that if one makes a square (with all sides equal in length) out of atriangle with a right angle, the areas of the squares made from the two shortersides, when added together, equal the area of the square made from the longside. Another geometrical discovery made by Pythagoras is that the diagonal ofa square is not a rational multiple of its side.
The latter discovery provedthe existence of irrational numbers and therefore changed the entire Greekmathematical belief that whole numbers and their ratios could account forgeometrical properties. Another contribution of Pythagoras and his follower is that of music. Pythagoras essentially created music in that he discovered the way it works. Pythagoras noticed that vibrating strings produce harmonious tones when theratios of the lengths of the strings are whole numbers. After making thisdiscovery, he found that these same ratios could be extended further to otherinstruments.
Pythagoras was one of the first to teach that the Earth was at thecenter of the universe. He was also one of the first to teach that the worldwas round, an idea not to be proven for almost another one thousand years. Pythagoras also discovered that the orbit of the moon is inclined to the equatorof the Earth. He also was the first person to make the connection that Venus asthe evening star is the same as Venus the morning star.
So, in conclusion, Pythagoras made many contributions to modernsociety. Thus, making him recognizable as a formidable scientist andmathematician even today. Pythagoras will always be a significant person inhistory, because of the discoveries made by him, his students in ancientGreece, and the ever growing amount of people studying his teachings today andwho will continue to learn and follow his lessons until the end of time.
