Pythagoras: Astronomer's Impact On The Science World

Gabrielle Cindric

Mr. Corso

Astronomy- Period 5

January 16th, 2018 Many Astronomers have impacted the way we see science and space today, but one Astronomer’s impact created ripples in the science world and his discoveries and formulas are still used today. Pythagoras is a very important and influential teacher and historical figure, who had an impact on many historical figures and his students. He was credited with the discovery of the Pythagorean theorem which revolutionized how we see Mathematics, he recognized that Venus in the morning and Venus at night are the same planet, and was the first person to claim the Earth was a sphere, and had many theories in many musical genres. Although he is very well known today he had many factual discoveries

Samos is a town in Ionia, but is now formally known as Turkey. “It is believed that his mother, Pythias, was a native of Samos. His father, Mnesarchus, was a merchant from Tyre”(Early Life, 1). Although we don’t know much about his early life, Historians can easily speculate that he was a very intelligent child which helped him to learn how to master playing the Lyre, and how to recite poetry. “All accounts of his physical appearance are likely to be fictitious except the description of a striking birthmark which Pythagoras had on his thigh. It is probable that he had two brothers although some sources say that he had three.”(O’Connor,4) It is said that Pythagoras studied under Thales and Anaximander because of the similarities between Anaximander and Pythagoras’ work and discoveries. Some Historians believe Pythagoras fled to Egypt although some historical accounts say that he was taken to Babylonia as a prisoner in between his trips to Egypt and Croton and that is where he got his idea for the Pythagorean theorem. No matter what happened in between he did made his way to Croton where he opened a school. At this school he made a brotherhood where his followers also contributed in many of his mathematical and scientific works, this brotherhood and the members were called Pythagoreans. “The Pythagoreans were well-known in antiquity for their vegetarianism, which they

“Pythagoras discovered that a complete system of mathematics could be constructed, where geometric elements corresponded with numbers, and where integers and their ratios were all that was necessary to establish an entire system of logic and truth” (“Greek Mathematics, 6). The Pythagorean theorem was originally just used to find the sides of a right triangle, but now is used on any shape. Pythagoras discovered “that, for any right-angled triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse (the longest side, opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides (or “legs”). Written as an equation: a2 + b2 = c2”(“Greek Mathematics”,3). Little did Pythagoras and his followers know that this formula would be used for years to come. Another mathematical discovery is the implementing of symbols for numbers rather than the traditional roman numerals. “He determined that everything progressed in predictable cycles, and assumed a relationship with respect to the alphabet”(Pythagorean Numerology”, 2) Most of his ideas and discoveries involve ratios and patterns using his numerical skills to make sense of the situations. “The updated Pythagorean conversion table uses numbers 1 through 9, each of which is related to certain letters of the alphabet, much like we use today”(“Pythagorean