112
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 26 points 9 months ago

Bringing up the fact that Pythagorean theorem doesn't work when one of the known values is √2. Pythagoras really didn't like this

[-] ValpoYAFF@hexbear.net 26 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

The Pythagorean relation ABSOLUTELY holds for a triangle whose legs are both 1 and whose hypotenuse is 2^(1/2). Pythagoras' cult simply didn't believe in irrational numbers, hence their trouble when the Pythagorean relation implied it. It is known there was even a proof at the time of the irrationality of the square root of two.

[-] hexaflexagonbear@hexbear.net 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

More specifically, I don't know how advanced the details of mathematical philosphy were at the time. But a discussion point might be that just because irrational numbers are logically possible, doesn't mean they're "real" (in some sense). However, being constructible using basic geometric arguments (as a right angled isolese triangle is) would make arguing against their existence much more difficult.

load more comments (4 replies)
this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2024
112 points (100.0% liked)

chapotraphouse

13528 readers
804 users here now

Banned? DM Wmill to appeal.

No anti-nautilism posts. See: Eco-fascism Primer

Gossip posts go in c/gossip. Don't post low-hanging fruit here after it gets removed from c/gossip

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS