Running Head : Biography of a Mathematician Project

Biography of a Mathematician Project : Pythagoras of Samos

Matthew Pierce

Pathways Academy for Technology and Design

Pre-Cac H

January 4, 2017

Abstract
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Pythagoras of Samos is best known for his programme theorem, but he has a

commonly unknown history. He was born in Samos in 570 BC, and died in 495 BC. He

was a philosopher first and a mathematician second. He traveled to Egypt and was

taken as a Prisoner of war from egypt to babylonia. He was introduced to several ideas

that drove his interest in math and philosophy further in these to places, which lead to

him forming his own group, the pythagoreans, who were a philosophy group that

attempted to see the world through math. He was given credit for proving the

pythagorean theorem, and his group helped inspire philosophy and math in Italy.

Keywords: Pythagorean Theorem; Mathematician

Pythagoras of Samos was a greek philosopher and mathematician. He was born in the

year 570 BC in the town of Samos. He spent most of his young life in this province state

of Samos, but traveled much with his father as he was the son of a gem
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engraver/merchant. Most drawings of him as a child are expected to be artist renditions,

and the only feature we know of distinctly is a birthmark on his thigh. He had either 2 or

3 brothers. He was well educated at a young age, and was introduced to philosophy at

a young age as well, which certainly had an effect on his later life.

In 535 BC he went to egypt, questionably bring along a message from the new

ruler of samos to egypt ( which is back that historical records show they had an alliance

at the time). Pythagoras was attracted to the practices of egyptian priests, and would

alter in life adopt some practices, such as codes of secrecy, striving for purity and

refusing to wear animal skins as clothing. While in Egypt, the invasion from the Persians

began, and Egypt fell, and he was taken as a prisoner of war. He returned to Samos in

520. The ruler of Persia had taken control of Samos after the death of their rulers in

522. Shortly after returning to Samos, he left to Crete to study law, which influence him

to later open his own school in Samos, know as The Semicircle. Few year later he left

Samos to southern italy where he started a philosophical and religious school in croton,

and started a small society known as the mathematikoi, who lived permanently within

the society, had no personal possessions and were vegetarians. Some ideas that this

group incorporated were that all things are numbers and that mathematics were the

basis for everything , and on top of that geometry is the highest form of mathematical

studies. They also said that the soul resides in the brain and is immortal, that numbers

have personalities and characteristics, and that the world depends on the interaction of

opposites.

Due to this society, it is hard to see pythagoras's actual work, as his school

practiced secrecy and communalism, which makes it difficult to distinguish his work
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from that of his followers, This group did not have a necessary goal, but rather thought

of principles of mathematics and the concepts of mathematics, rather than a research

group that has a goal. Pythagoras thought that all relations could be reduced to number

relations, and it was noted by other philosophers and mathematicians, for instance

Ariotile. Through all of this though most people remember his, or just over named after

him, theorem. This theorem was known by the babylonians for about 1000 years earlier,

he was the first, or again his colleges and him were the first, to be able to prove it.

Some other theorems that are attributed to Pythagoras/his group the Pythagoreans are

that the sum of all angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles, the discovery of

irrationals ( more attributed to his group rather than him ), and the five regular solids,

and he knew how to construct the first 3, it was unlikely he knew the last 2.

Primarily pythagoras was a philosopher, but has been and will be remembered

for the formula named for him. This is the point where history is unknown, and debated,

as his society of pythagoras were attacked by by Cylon, he left to metapontum and most

authors say he died there, but some such as Iamblichus argues the attack was a minor

affair and pythagoras returned to Cronton. He argues that since years after the

Pythagorean society thrived and spread to many other Italian provinces, and that his

age of death was that more of 100 (470 BC) compared to the common age of 75 ( 495

BC). Both of these ages are quite long for that of someone living before the idea of

drinking water for a different source than that you extricate to. Some interesting things

about him that perhaps humanizes him abit is that he played the lyre throughout his

lifetime, knew poetry and could recite homer. He was not only interested in philosophy

and mathematics, but also in astronomy and music. He often tried to understand music
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through numbers. Something that might be understated is his travels, as for a man in

500 BC travel was difficult and time consuming, let alone dangerous, and he traveled

from italy to egypt, and then to babylonia, and from their back to italy.

All of this travel also shows that in his own way, he used other cultures and a

range of thinking to come up with his ideas and helped spread that to others within his

society. This person was not really a hero as he did not inspire a large amount of

people, and while he can be linked to a small revolution of thought, his contributions to

math are the only ones that still remain, and did not dramatically change society or

peoples lives. Pythagoras faced struggles such as politics. This might sound weird but

as a secret society he did not want to work with or contribute much in the world of

politics, but like everything else ended up apart of it anyways, which lead to his death

( the invasion/fight of Croton was political due to pythagoras's relation to other leaders

as past friends of his father).

Overall there is little know about his life due to how long ago his life was, and

how his life and society was dedicated to secrecy. Even with the little info we have we

can say that he was mathematically minded, and would be happy to know that to this

day people use his work in mathematics and geometry.

Bibliography

Pythagoras (c. 570c. 495 B.C.E). (n.d.). Retrieved January 04, 2017, from

http://www.iep.utm.edu/pythagor/

Pythagoras. (n.d.). Retrieved January 04, 2017, from

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pythagoras
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Pythagoras of Samos. (n.d.). Retrieved January 04, 2017, from http://www-groups.dcs.st-

and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Pythagoras.html

Pythagoras. (n.d.). Retrieved January 04, 2017, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras