Pythagoras' theorem (a) | Math History | NJ Wildberger

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Pythagoras'  theorem is both the oldest and the most important non-trivial theorem in mathematics.

This is the first part of the first lecture of a course on the History of Mathematics, by N J Wildberger, the discoverer of Rational Trigonometry. We will follow John Stillwell's text Mathematics and its History (Springer, 3rd ed). Generally the emphasis will be on mathematical ideas and results, but largely without proofs, with a main eye on the historical flow of ideas. A few historical tidbits will be thrown in too...

In this first lecture (with two parts) we first give a very rough outline of world history from a mathematical point of view, position the work of the ancient Greeks as following from Egyptian and Babylonian influences, and introduce the most important theorem in all of mathematics: Pythagoras' theorem.

Two interesting related issues are the irrationality of the 'square root of two' (the Greeks saw this as a segment, or perhaps more precisely as the proportion or ratio between two segments, not as a number), and Pythagorean triples, which go back to the Babylonians. These are closely related to the important rational parametrization of a circle, essentially discovered by Euclid and Diophantus. This is a valuable and under-appreciated insight which high school students ought to explicitly see.

In fact young people learning mathematics should really see more of the history of the subject! The Greeks thought of mathematics differently than we do today, and all students can benefit from a closer appreciation of the difficulties which they saw, but which we today largely ignore.

This series has now been extended a few times--with more than 35 videos on the History of Mathematics.

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Screenshot PDFs for my videos are available at the website http://wildegg.com. These give you a concise overview of the contents of the lectures for various Playlists: great for review, study and summary.

My research papers can be found at my Research Gate page, at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Norman_Wildberger

My blog is at http://njwildberger.com/, where I will discuss lots of foundational issues, along with other things.

Online courses will be developed at openlearning.com. The first one, already underway is Algebraic Calculus One at https://www.openlearning.com/courses/algebraic-calculus-one/ Please join us for an exciting new approach to one of mathematics' most important subjects!

If you would like to support these new initiatives for mathematics education and research, please consider becoming a Patron of this Channel at https://www.patreon.com/njwildberger Your support would be much appreciated.

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Here are all the Insights into Mathematics Playlists:

Elementary Mathematics (K-6) Explained: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?
list=PL8403C2F0C89B1333
Year 9 Maths:   https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIljB45xT85CcGpZpO542YLPeDIf1jqXK
Ancient Mathematics: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIljB45xT85Aqe2b4FBWUGJdYROT6-o4e
Wild West Banking: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIljB45xT85DB7CzoFWvA920NES3g8tJH
Sociology and Pure Mathematics: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIljB45xT85A-qCypcmZqRvaS1pGXpTua
Old Babylonian Mathematics (with Daniel Mansfield): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?
list=PLIljB45xT85CdeBmQZ2QiCEnPQn5KQ6ov
Math History: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL55C7C83781CF4316
Wild Trig: Intro to Rational Trigonometry: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3C58498718451C47
MathFoundations: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5A714C94D40392AB
Wild Linear Algebra: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIljB45xT85BhzJ-oWNug1YtUjfWp1qAp
Famous Math Problems: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIljB45xT85Bfc-S4WHvTIM7E-ir3nAOf
Probability and Statistics: An Introduction: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIljB45xT85AMigTyprOuf__daeklnLse
Boole's Logic and Circuit Analysis: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIljB45xT85CnIGIWb7tH1F_S2PyOC8rb
Universal Hyperbolic Geometry: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIljB45xT85CN9oJ4gYkuSQQhAtpIucuI
Differential Geometry: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIljB45xT85DWUiFYYGqJVtfnkUFWkKtP
Algebraic Topology: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6763F57A61FE6FE8
Math Seminars: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBF39AFBBC3FB30AF
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And here are the Wild Egg Maths Playlists:

Triangle Centres: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLBGXDSUohM&list=PLzdiPTrEWyz6VcJQ5xcuqY6g4DWjvpmjM
Six: An elementary course in pure mathematics: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzdiPTrEWyz4KD007Ge10dfrDVc4YwlYS
Algebraic Calculus One: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzdiPTrEWyz4rKFN541wFKvKPSg5Ea6XB
Algebraic Calculus Two: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzdiPTrEWyz5VLVr-0LPPgm4T1mtU_DG-
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YouTube url:	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW8Cy6WrO94
Created:	20. 9. 2021 01:39:45

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Pythagoras' theorem (a) | Math History | NJ Wildberger