PY T H AG O RA S  ( Π Υ Θ Α Γ Ό Ρ Α Σ )

THE ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHERS

By Rebecca Schlafke

PYTHAGORAS

• Born- 570 BC• Died- 495 BC (aged about 75)• Father was a gem- engraver or a merchant• Lived and worked in Samos for most of his life.• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1E7I7_r3Cw (8:49)

PYTHAGORAS

• One of the first mathematical thinkers.• Creator of many ideas and theories including the Pythagorean

Theorem and many basics of music.• He had a group of followers called the Pythagoreans, somewhat

like how Jesus had the disciples. Pythagoras had influenced his followers and other philosophers including Plato.

• Pythagoras worked in the Western philosophy region.

PYTHAGORAS

• Born in 570 BC• Died in 495 BC (aged 75)• Father was a merchant or a gem-engraver

PYTHAGOREAN SCHOOL

The views on Pythagoras are various. Pythagoras lived so long ago the no one really knew how he was like or how he ruled his followers. He and his followers are known to have some “strange” rules. These include: • Do not eat beans• Do not pick up what has fallen• Never touch a white clock• Do not stir a fire with iron• Do not look in a mirror next to a light

• The Pythagorean school was open to men and woman from all over. If they understood numbers and followed the rules they were allowed in.

• Although Pythagoras was open to anyone the findings of Pythagoras were very secretive and Pythagoreans were not allowed to share the findings of the school.

PYTHAGOREAN THEOREM

• Started with the Sumerians two thousand years before Pythagoras but Pythagoras was the first to prove that it works ALL the time. • He never wrote it down so the actual theorem

wasn’t written down until later. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8DrYz_cKR0 (27:35)

PYTHAGOREAN THEOREM

PYTHAGORAS AND HIS INFLUENCE ON OTHER FAMOUS MATH CONCEPTS

Fractals:• Information on fractals continue to grow so there

isn’t really any one person who discovered fractals but Pythagoras was the main start. • Here is a video to describe what a fractal really is:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiGBNNDDgH0 (4:37)

Some famous fractals are: Sierpinski triangle Koch Snowflake

MUSIC

• Pythagoras and his followers had a large contribution to finding the basics of music.

• The legend is, one day Pythagoras was passing by blacksmiths and as they were hammering he found the noise to be “harmonious.”

• Pythagoras took such a large interest in music because of how it related to math.

• Some people believe that because music was built on a base of mathematics it explains why most children who play an instrument and understand music tend to understand math better than children who do not.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEVGQKwKeCc (4:43)

PYTHAGORAS’ PHILOSOPHY

Pythagoras and his followers believed that numbers where like a secret, difficult code; “if you understood

numbers, you could understand anything in the world, including the mysteries of the universe.”

• Pythagoras and his followers discovered and created so many different theories and important subjects because they thought they understood everything.

• The Pythagorean school was so strict and small because in order to be allowed in you had to understand all there was to know about numbers at the time.

• Due to the understanding of numbers Pythagoras never feared about doing something wrong because he was confident that he could find out anything and that he was right every time.

• Many philosophers and mathematicians have proven some Pythagorean findings wrong but in 500 BC Pythagoras was known to have everything right.

REFERENCES

• http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/science/math/pythagoras.htm • http://kidsthinkaboutit.com/?page_id=57 • http://

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras#Musical_theories_and_investigations • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal#History