Pythagorean theorem Pythagoras personally, [...] one can safely assume that it belongs to the very oldest period of Pythagorean mathematics." Around 400 BC, according to Proclus, Plato gave a method for finding Pythagorean triples that combined algebra and geometry. Around 300 BC, in Euclid's "Elements", the oldest extant axiomatic proof of the theorem is presented. Pythagorean theorem In mathematics, the Pythagorean theorem, also known as Pythagoras' theorem, is a fundamental relation in Euclidean geometry among the three sides of a right triangle. It states that the square of the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of
Pythagorean prime representation can be interpreted geometrically: the Pythagorean primes are exactly the odd prime numbers "p" such that there exists a right triangle, with integer legs, whose hypotenuse has length . They are also exactly the prime numbers "p" such that there exists a right triangle with integer sides whose hypotenuse has length "p". For, if the triangle with legs "x" and "y" has hypotenuse length (with "x" > "y"), then the triangle with legs "x" − "y" and 2"xy" has hypotenuse length "p". Another way to understand this representation as a sum of two squares involves Gaussian integers, the complex