What were Pythagoras’sother
contributions?
It is interesting that the Pythagorean
Theorem was not Pythagoras’s only con-
tribution. He is considered the first pure
mathematician. He also founded a school
that stressed a fourfold division of knowl-
edge, including number theory (deemed
the most important of the pursuits at the
school and using only the natural num-
bers), music, geometry, and astronomy
(these subjects were called the quadrivi-
umin the Middle Ages). Along with logic,
grammar, and rhetoric, these studies col-
lectively formed what was deemed the
essential areas of knowledge for any well-
rounded person.Pythagoras not only taught these subjects, but also reincarnation and mysti-
cism, establishing an order similar to, or perhaps influenced by, the earlier Orphic
cult. The true lives of Pythagoras and his followers (who worshipped Pythagoras as
a demigod) are a bit of a mystery, as they followed a strict code of secrecy and
regarded their mathematical studies as something of a black art. The fundamental
belief of the Pythagoreans was that “all is number,” or that the entire universe—
even abstract ethical concepts such as justice—could be explained in terms of
numbers. But they also had some interesting non-mathematical beliefs, including
an aversion to beans.
Although the Pythagoreans were influential in the fields of mathematics and
geometry, they also made important contributions to astronomy and medicine and
were the first to teach that the Earth revolved around a fixed point (the Sun). This idea
would be popularized centuries later by Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus
(1473–1543). By the end of the 5th century BCE, the Pythagoreans had become social
outcasts; many of them were killed as people grew angry at the group’s interference
with traditional religious customs.Who was the firstrecorded female mathematician?
The first known female mathematician was Hypatia of Alexandria (370–415), who was
probably taught by her mathematician and philosopher father, Theon of Alexandria.
Around 400, she became the head of the Platonist school at Alexandria, lecturing on
mathematics and philosophy. Little is known of her writings, and more legend is
18 known of her than any true facts. It is thought that she was eventually killed by a mob.
The Pythagorean Theorem is an easy way to deter-
mine the length of one side of a right triangle, given
one knows the length of the other two sides.