The Pythagorean Theorem: A 4,000-Year HistoryAn exploration of one of the most celebrated and well-known theorems in mathematics |
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... Equation x2/3 + y2/3 = 1 H. Solutions to Brainteasers I. A Most Unusual Proof 229 231 235 237 241 245 Chronology Bibliography Illustrations Credits 251 255 Index 257 List of Color Plates Color illustrations follow page 134. Plate viii ...
... equations in science. The top winner was Euler's formula eiπ + 1 = 0, followed in order by Maxwell's four electromagnetic field equations, Newton's second law of motion F = ma, and a2 + b2 = c2, the Pythagorean theorem; it won only ...
... equation xn + yn = zn, where all the variables, including the exponent n, stand for positive integers. When n = 1, the equation is trivial: the sum of any two integers is obviously a third integer, so we have x1 + y1 = z1. The case n ...
... equations x3 + y3 = z3, x4 + y4 = z4, and so on. None were ever found. Fermat thought he had a proof that no integer solutions of the equation xn + yn = zn exist for any value of n greater than 2. In the margins of his copy of the works ...
A 4,000-Year History Eli Maor. equation that Fermat was investigating had already been studied by the Babylonians nearly four thousand years earlier. It is here that our story really begins. Notes and Sources 1. This is a free quotation ...
Contents
1 | |
4 | |
2 Pythagoras | 17 |
3 Euclids Elements | 32 |
4 Archimedes | 50 |
5 Translators and Commentators 5001500 CE | 57 |
6 François Viète Makes History | 76 |
7 From the Infinite to the Infinitesimal | 82 |
12 From Flat Space to Curved Spacetime | 168 |
13 Prelude to Relativity | 181 |
14 From Bern to Berlin 19051915 | 188 |
15 But Is It Universal? | 201 |
16 Afterthoughts | 208 |
Samos 2005 | 213 |
Appendixes | 219 |
Chronology | 245 |
8 371 Proofs and Then Some | 98 |
9 A Theme and Variations | 123 |
10 Strange Coordinates | 145 |
11 Notation Notation Notation | 158 |
Bibliography | 251 |
Illustrations Credits | 255 |
Index | 257 |