Pythagorean theorem four elementary lemmata: Next, each top square is related to a triangle congruent with another triangle related in turn to one of two rectangles making up the lower square. The proof is as follows: This proof, which appears in Euclid's "Elements" as that of Proposition 47 in Book 1, demonstrates that the area of the square on the hypotenuse is the sum of the areas of the other two squares. This is quite distinct from the proof by similarity of triangles, which is conjectured to be the proof that Pythagoras used. We have already discussed the Pythagorean proof, which was
Pythagorean theorem the dot product of vectors. The dot product is called the "standard" inner product or the "Euclidean" inner product. However, other inner products are possible. The concept of length is replaced by the concept of the norm ||v|| of a vector v, defined as: In an inner-product space, the Pythagorean theorem states that for any two orthogonal vectors v and w we have Here the vectors v and w are akin to the sides of a right triangle with hypotenuse given by the vector sum v + w. This form of the Pythagorean theorem is a consequence of the properties