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Pythagoras Biography

Mathematician / Philosopher

Pythagoras was the thinker who discovered the Pythagorean Theorem in geometry (although none of his actual writings are extant). The theorem states that the sum of the squares of the two legs of a right triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse. Not much is known about Pythagoras, other than that he was a mathematician and philosopher who founded a community in southern Italy sometime in the 6th century B.C. His followers were extremely secretive and loyal, and held a mystical view of numbers and their relation to nature.

Pythagoras joins famous names Rudolf Diesel and Sigmund Freud in our loop Who's What?... Other mathematicians on Who2 include Blaise Pascal, Alan Turing and Tom Lehrer.