NationStates Jolt Archive

I was reading about Pythagoras, what a kick ass guy he was? He and his followers worshipped numbers and he believed that the world was made from perfect numbers and when one of his followers pointed out that numbers like pi and e were not defined and so the world was not made from perfect numbers, he drowned him! What a guy. Ha ha, poopy.

I was reading about Pythagoras, what a kick ass guy he was? He and his followers worshipped numbers and he believed that the world was made from perfect numbers and when one of his followers pointed out that numbers like pi and e were not defined and so the world was not made from perfect numbers, he drowned him! What a guy. Ha ha, poopy.

There are a few stories about what they actually did to him, but I'm not sure if any have been properly confirmed.

e was discovered by Euler. Wasn't around in pythagoras' time. Number you want is root 2.

Anyone here know the definition of e?

e was discovered by Euler. Wasn't around in pythagoras' time. Number you want is root 2.
Yeah, thanks. I was just fishing for irrational numbers.

Anyone here know the definition of e?
e= lim(1+1/n)^n

The apocryphal story is that when the Pythogarans were confronted with the fact that the square root of two is undefined (which destroyed Pythagoras' ideals of mathematical perfection) they either killed the man who first discovered it and/or sacrificed 100 bulls.

Another story has it that they simply erected a monument to the man that was akin to a mausoleum - hence the eventual story that has it that they had killed him.

A major flaw in the story is that the Pythagorans were strict moral vegetarians, so sacrificing one bull, let alone 100 - and a man - was a complete anathema to their beliefs. They had very strict rules and regulations. They wouldn't even eat beans, as the bean was viewed as being of the female part of the plant. They also weren't allowed to touch white cocks (ahh - that's a rooster before any of you grubby-minded sods think otherwise), or to look into a mirror beside a light. Most went barefoot as well.

They worshipped numbers - especially 5, and the pentagram. This was because they viewed even numbers as female, odd numbers as male. So 2 was a female, 3 was male. 5 therefore was the sum of man and woman - hence it's importance. Also if you drew a perfect pentagon and then the diagonals, you end up with a pentagram (and all five points would touch the circumference of the same circle) in the middle - and so ad infinitum.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/p1img2264.gif
The length of one diagonal over the length of one side of the pentagon is phi - the golden ratio. Also the triangles that make up the pentagrams points are golden ratio triangles. THe Pythagorans were totally fascinated with this stuff.

His death is another fascinating collection of myths and half-truths. When Greece fell into civil war, Pythagoras sided with one faction. Unfortunately the other faction got to his school of learning first. One story has it that Pythagoras fled but was caught and killed because he came across a field of beans and refused to go any further as he didn't want to defile himself by touching the beans. Another has it that he escaped to a temple where he was given protection, but starved himself to death.

One of the great ironies of Pythogaras' lasting fame is that the rule he is most famous for ('Square on the Hypotenuse blah blah blah') isn't his. The principals of which had been well known for over 1000 years previous to him formulating it into a proper mathematical rule.
Yet it's his other discovery which is by far more important to World history and almost no-one knows it's his.
Anyone care to guess what it is?

Two other things attributed to Pythagoras are

Heliocentric solar system model

Multiplication tables

Which of these did you have in mind, or was it something else.

Edit:

I forgot he is also supposedly responsible for the mathematical description of the musical scale.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?! :confused:

Yet it's his other discovery which is by far more important to World history and almost no-one knows it's his.
Anyone care to guess what it is?

No, but I'm curious now. Please tell me!

No, but I'm curious now. Please tell me!
Well, because Alien Born has already mentioned it, no harm in letting the cat out.
He discovered the musical scale. That for example a string of one length and another of twice the length produced harmonious tones.
This was possibly the first time a physical law had been mathematically expressed. Thus began the science of mathematical physics.

Well, because Alien Born has already mentioned it, no harm in letting the cat out.
He discovered the musical scale. That for example a string of one length and another of twice the length produced harmonious tones.
This was possibly the first time a physical law had been mathematically expressed. Thus began the science of mathematical physics.

Sounds good. Of course, I'm nearly tone deaf, but I can appreciate what it means.

Cheers for that one!

Sounds good. Of course, I'm nearly tone deaf, but I can appreciate what it means.
You and me both.
There has yet to be a bucket made big enough for me to carry a tune in.

You and me both.
There has yet to be a bucket made big enough for me to carry a tune in.

:D

My singing is against the Geneva convention. Of course, as far as I'm concerned, I sound perfectly fine.

Although the screaming and physical attacks of my friends gave me a clue...