REEXAMINING THE VARIOUS PROOFS TO

THE PYTHAGOREAN THEOREM

INTRODUCTION

Professor R. Smullyan in his book 5000 B.C. and Other Philosophical Fantasies tells of an experiment he ran in one of his geometry classes. He drew a right triangle on the board with squares on the hypotenuse and legs and observed the fact the square on the hypotenuse had a larger area than either of the other two squares. Then he asked, "Suppose these three squares were made of beaten gold, and you were offered either the one large square or the two small squares. Which would you choose?" Interestingly enough, about half the class opted for the one large square and half for the two small squares. Both groups were equally amazed when told that it would make no difference. The Pythagorean (or Pythagoras') Theorem is the statement that the sum of (the areas of) the two small squares equals (the area of) the big one. In algebraic terms, a + b = c where c is the hypotenuse while a and b are the legs of the triangle. The Pythagorean Theorem is named after the Greek mathematician Pythagoras (ca. 570 BCca. 495 BC), who by tradition is credited with its proof, although it is often argued that knowledge of the theorem predates him. There is evidence that Babylonian mathematicians understood the formula, although there is little surviving evidence that they used it in a mathematical framework. Also, Mesopotamian, Indian and Chinese mathematicians have all been known for independently discovering the result, some even providing proofs of special cases.

PYTHAGORAS Pythagoras lived in the sixth or fifth century B.C. He founded the Pythagorean School in Crotona. This school was an academy for the study of mathematics, philosophy, and natural science. Pythagoras and his colleagues are credited with many contributions to mathematics.

THE PROOFS The theorem has numerous proofs, possibly the most of any mathematical theorem. These are very diverse, including both geometric proofs and algebraic proofs, with some dating back thousands of years. The theorem can be generalized in various ways, including higher-dimensional spaces, to spaces that are not Euclidean, to objects that are not right triangles, and indeed, to objects that are not triangles at all, but ndimensional solids. The Pythagorean Theorem has attracted interest outside mathematics as a symbol of mathematical abstruseness, mystique, or intellectual power; popular references in literature, plays, musicals, songs, stamps and cartoons abound.

THE THEOREM
The theorem states that "the square on the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the two legs." This theorem is talking about the area of the squares that are built on each side of the right triangle.

Accordingly, we obtain the following areas for the squares, where the green and blue squares are on the legs of the right triangle and the red square is on the hypotenuse. area of the green square is area of the blue square is area of the red square is From our theorem, we have the following relationship: area of green square + area of blue square = area of red square

OTHER FORMS OF THE THEOREM As pointed out earlier, if c denotes the length of the hypotenuse and a and b denote the lengths of the other two sides, the Pythagorean theorem can be expressed as the Pythagorean equation:

If the length of both a and b are known, then c can be calculated as follows:

If the length of hypotenuse c and one leg (a or b) are known, then the length of the other leg can be calculated with the following equations:

or

The Pythagorean equation relates the sides of a right triangle in a simple way, so that if the lengths of any two sides are known the length of the third side can be found. Another corollary of the theorem is that in any right triangle, the hypotenuse is greater than any one of the legs, but less than the sum of them.

PYTHAGORAS' PROOF The Pythagorean Theorem was known long before Pythagoras, but he may well have been the first to prove it. In any event, the proof attributed to him is very simple, and is called a proof by rearrangement.

Let a, b, c denote the legs and the hypotenuse of the given right triangle, and consider the two squares in the accompanying figure, each having a + b as its side. The first square is dissected into six pieces-namely, the two squares on the legs and four right triangles congruent to the given triangle. The second square is dissected into five piecesnamely, the square on the hypotenuse and four right triangles congruent to the given triangle. By subtracting equals from equals, it now follows that the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the legs.

Consider the following figure.

The area of the first square is given by (a+b)2 or 4(1/2ab)+ a2 + b2. The area of the second square is given by (a+b) 2 or 4(1/2ab) + c2.

Since the squares have equal areas we can set them equal to another and subtract equals. 4(1/2ab) + a2 + b2 = 4(1/2ab) + c2 Subtracting equals from both sides we have

That Pythagoras originated this very simple proof is sometimes inferred from the writings of the later Greek philosopher and mathematician Proclus.

PROOF USING ALGEBRA

Area of Whole Square It is a big square, with each side having a length of a+b, so the total area is: A = (a+b) (a+b) Area of the Pieces Now let's add up the areas of all the smaller pieces: First, the smaller (tilted) square has an area of A = c2

And there are four triangles, each one has an area of So all four of them combined is

A =ab A = 4(ab) = 2ab

So, adding up the tilted square and the 4 triangles gives:

A = c2+2ab

Both Areas Must Be Equal The area of the large square is equal to the area of the tilted square and the 4 triangles. This can be written as: (a+b)(a+b) = c2+2ab NOW, let us rearrange this to see if we can get the Pythagorean Theorem: Start with: (a+b)(a+b) = c2 + 2ab

Expand (a+b)(a+b):

a2 + 2ab + b2 = c2 + 2ab

Subtract "2ab" from both sides:

a2 + b2 = c2

PROOF USING SIMILAR TRIANGLES This proof is based on the proportionality of the sides of two similar triangles, that is, upon the fact that the ratio of any two corresponding sides of similar triangles is the same regardless of the size of the triangles.

Let ABC represent a right triangle, with the right angle located at C, as shown on the figure. We draw the altitude from point C, and call H its intersection with the side AB. Point H divides the length of the hypotenuse c into parts d and e. The new triangle ACH is similar to triangle ABC, because they both have a right angle (by definition of the altitude), and they share the angle at A, meaning that the third angle will be the same in both triangles as well, marked as in the figure. By a similar reasoning, the triangle CBH is also similar to ABC. The proof of similarity of the triangles requires the Triangle postulate: the sum of the angles in a triangle is two right angles, and is equivalent to the parallel postulate.

Similarity of the triangles leads to the equality of ratios of corresponding sides:

These ratios can be written as:

Summing these two equalities, we obtain

Which, tidying up, is the Pythagorean Theorem:

PROOF BY REARRANGEMENT Again, we have the Pythagorean equation a2 + b2 = c2, where c represents the length of the hypotenuse, and a and b represent the lengths of the other two sides.

The large square on the left consists of the square on the hypotenuse and four of the original right triangles. The same large square on the right is composed of the squares on the two other sides of the rectangular triangle and four of the original rectangular triangles. Upon rearrangement of the triangles, the area of the red square on the left equals the sum of the areas of two red squares on the right.