Special right triangle : , which follows immediately from the Pythagorean theorem. Of all right triangles, the 45°–45°–90° degree triangle has the smallest ratio of the hypotenuse to the sum of the legs, namely . Of all right triangles, the 45°–45°–90° degree triangle has the greatest ratio of the altitude from the hypotenuse to the sum of the legs, namely . Triangles with these angles are the only possible right triangles that are also isosceles triangles in Euclidean geometry. However, in spherical geometry and hyperbolic geometry, there are infinitely many different shapes of right isosceles triangles. This is a triangle whose three angles
Fermat's right triangle theorem congruum is equivalent to the existence of a Pythagorean triangle with a square area. It is this variant of the problem that Fermat's proof concerns: he shows that there is no such triangle. In considering this problem, Fermat was inspired not by Fibonacci but by an edition of Diophantus published by Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac. This book described various special right triangles whose areas had forms related to squares, but did not consider the case of areas that were themselves square. By rearranging the equations for the two Pythagorean triangles above, and then multiplying them together, one obtains the