Was Pythagoras Chinese?: An Examination of Right Triangle Theory in Ancient China

by Frank J. Swetz

The title of this monograph, while intended to intrigue and attract the otherwise unresponsive reader, is not whimsically conceived. Of course, the historical figure of mathematical fame known as Pythagoras, born on the island of Samos in the 6th century B.C., was Greek, not Chinese. But there is another "Pythagoras" equally deserving fame. He is the man who first proved the proposition that "the sum of the squares of the legs of a right triangle...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0271012382
• ISBN13: 9780271012384
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Length: 108 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.2" x 9.1"