Pythagorean theorem three sides in place of squares (squares are a special case, of course). The upper figure shows that for a scalene triangle, the area of the parallelogram on the longest side is the sum of the areas of the parallelograms on the other two sides, provided the parallelogram on the long side is constructed as indicated (the dimensions labeled with arrows are the same, and determine the sides of the bottom parallelogram). This replacement of squares with parallelograms bears a clear resemblance to the original Pythagoras's theorem, and was considered a generalization by Pappus of Alexandria in 4 AD The
Legendre's three-square theorem Legendre's three-square theorem In mathematics, Legendre's three-square theorem states that a natural number can be represented as the sum of three squares of integers if and only if is not of the form formula_2 for integers and . The first numbers that cannot be expressed as the sum of three squares (i.e. numbers that can be expressed as formula_2) are Pierre de Fermat gave a criterion for numbers of the form 3"a" + 1 to be a sum of three squares essentially equivalent to Legendre's theorem, but did not provide a proof. N. Beguelin noticed in 1774 that every positive