Ok so
because understanding the history of our technology gives anthropologists a better way to determine what we were capable of in our earliest stages of civilization. because understanding the history of us is important to understanding who we are. do you really not see the value in knowledge?
I knew Pythagoras was smart but I never knew he invented time travel. So cool!
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And he invented plagiarism too!
nah he probably stole that as well.
Poor poor Plagiar, everything he invented people stole and took credit for.
The Plagiarian theorem is a real bummer.
I took the opposite tack.
You ain’t shit, Pythagoras! You just wrote it down, you didn’t figure it out, you absolute fucking fraud. We’re taking your immortality back!
Quick! Change all the textbooks to “clay tablet theorem”!
Why not call it the Summerian Theorem ? Or Arabic/Persian/Philistine Triangulation Theorem ?
People used to live longer back then, just look at the bible.
This is one of the reasons why we shouldn’t name things after people.
This, and the fact that most stuff is invented by teams and not individuals. I think our tendency to name after a single person helps keep the hero/savior/Messiah complex of western society alive, and blinds us to the power of community and cooperation. It’s like “individual-washing” the past.
This makes a strong case on the discovery side of the discovery vs. invention controversy.
Ironically, my dad idolized Pythagoras and the notion of discovering a scientific fundamental to be remembered for thousands of years, for which the secret is not to actually do science, but raise a cult of scientists who attribute their inventions to you. Like Thomas Edison.
Not really. The Pythagorean theorem (or whomever you want to credit for it) assumes plane geometry. It’s not true in general.
Plane geometry is the invention that makes all of the math work. The earth is not a flat plane (not even close to flat pretty much anywhere). If you want to do Pythagorean-like calculations between cities on earth, for example, you’ll get a much more accurate result with spherical geometry operating on geodesics. Unfortunately, spherical triangles not obey the Pythagorean theorem!
🎶 They say Thomas Edison he’s the man to bring us into this century
And that man is me…
It was most of the Greeks. We credit Democritus with atomism even though the Greeks said it came from an earlier Phoenician, Mochus of Sidon. Even Democritus’s teacher doesn’t get credit.
Democritus wrote it down in a way that survived.
That’s it.
raise a cult
*cough* Elon Musk *cough*
Edison, Watson/Crick, Musk, Jobs…I hope today it’s much harder to get away with being an idea stealing tool bag since the internet has competent archivers, sans working under a company that owns anything you make.
As in turns out, Watson and Crick may not have actually stolen anything from Rosalind Franklin after all. If you’re interested, I found an article I read regarding it about a year back. A couple of researchers provide some interesting info and context that make the original data stealing narrative less certain.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/rosalind-franklin-dna-structure-watson-crick
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Someone is lost!
Wut?
What a classic situation. Some hype man taking credit.
Isn’t this common knowledge that the Indians knew the theorem well before Pythagorus?
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Given what other comments are saying about him (cult leader appropriating works of others), I think the west/europe would do well not to associate themselves with him.
Yes and also I have a hard time believing the builders if the great pyramid didn’t understand it in some capacity either. They just didn’t have symbolic algebra to express it the way we do .
There are mentions of pythagorian triplets in pyramid era Egypt, and in all fairness, ancient Greeks didn’t have symbolic algebra either - it is a fairly recent form of expression.
And, as far as I know, ancient Indians were actually writing mathematical expressions in full prose form - word problems et al.
people joined a cult because of this theorem. that must be awkward
another nail in whitey’s coffin. when will this woke history end
Pythagoras wasn’t white. 😎
I don’t know, this painting of him looks pretty white (please ignore that it was made in the 1920s by an American who had probably never been to Greece)
and another nail in whitey’s coffin. when will this woke history end
I thought it was pretty well established that Pythagoras didn’t invent it, he was just the leader of a Math and Murder cult so he stole it
“Math and Murder Cult” sounds metal as hell. I’d join.
math murder cult = my new band
Send me a demo. Or hell I’ll play bass
Simmer down Hulk Hogan.
Right on brotha
And garden of eden as well as the story with a baby in a basket in Nil, are already in Atrahasis epos, from which Gilgamesh epos copied btw.
I bet Pythagoras had substandard copper too
Pythagoras has superior copper. All other thagoras has inferior copper.
I feel like at this point I’ve seen this story in 1,000 year old reposts.