Pythagorean Theorem

By armiller13
  • Period: 1900 BCE to 1600 BCE

    Pythagorean triples appear on Babylonian tablets from this time period.

  • Period: 800 BCE to 400 BCE

    The Indian Baudhayana Sulba-sutra mentions the theorem.

    The Baudhayana Sulba-sutra was written at some point during this time period.
  • Period: 570 BCE to 490 BCE

    Life of Pythagoras

    These dates are approximate
  • 300 BCE

    Windmill Proof in Euclid's work "Elements"

    Around 300 BCE Euclid's book "Elements" was written, which includes Euclid's Windmill Proof of the theorem.
  • 100

    The Nine Chapters on Mathematical Procedures

    This Chinese work was compiled some time in the first century and contains several problems that demonstrate finding a missing side of a right triangle given the two other sides.
  • 300

    Liu Hiu's "tangram" proof

    Liu Hiu's proof consisted of cutting up the squares on the legs of a right triangle and using them to form the square on the hypotenuse. This appeared in his personal work sometime in the third century.

  • James Garfield's proof

    In 1876, which was 5 years before James Garfield would become president of the United States of America, he developed a geometric proof of the Pythagorean theorem.