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"1999 ASEE Session "3365 Class & Distance Educ./Math, and Engrg." "A GEOMETRICAL PROOF OF PYTHAGORAS THEOREM" Dr. Bertram Pariser Technical Career Institutes New York NY

Pythagoras presented a mathematical proof in the sixth century BCE, that the sum of the squares of the sides of a right triangle equals the square of the hypotenuse. Pythagoras proof states that the sides of a right triangle, a, b, and hypotenuse, c, are related by

a2 + b2 = c2.
While most students have found empirically that Pythagoras theorem works, the proof requires postulates in geometry that are not available until the conclusion of a course, usually in the second year of high school. Thus many people have never seen a proof. My geometrical proof enables the reader to construct and understand the elegance of Pythagoras Theorem. To enhance your understanding, I suggest that you use a compass, a piece of paper and a ruler. As you read each paragraph, stop, and do each construction. Please take a moment and examine the completed diagram that is located on page 6. You can sequentially generate my proof by following the steps in the remainder of this paper. First construct a circle using a compass and a piece of paper. Make a secant line that passes through the center of the circle dividing the circle into two parts. Each half of the circle is a fraction, of the circle, the same half is also a decimal, 0.5 of the circle, and in addition, the same half represents 50 % of the circle. Half of a circle is a fraction, a decimal, and a percent. Construct a perpendicular bisector line with respect to the secant line (diameter). Expand the radius of your compass, and place the point of your compass on the perimeter of the circle where the diameter intersects the perimeter. Construct an arc on the top of the circle and an arc on the bottom of the circle. Move the compass point to the opposite side of the secant line without changing the radius; Construct an arc on top of the circle and on the bottom of the circle. The two opposing arcs on top, intersect, as do the arcs on the bottom. Draw a bisector line from the top intersection to the bottom interception. This bisector line goes through the center of the circle! The bisector line is perpendicular to the diameter. The secant line and the perpendicular bisector line are orthogonal. Therefore, the angles at the center of the circle are each 90 degrees. The quadrants of the circle are Quadrant l (0 900), Quadrant 2, (90-1800), Quadrant 3 (180-2700), Quadrant 4 (270-3600). Label your construction. Construct four right triangles, by drawing a line connecting the intersections of the circle. Look at one of the triangles. Two sides of the triangle have equal length because each is the radius of the
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circle. Each triangle is isosceles. What is the measure of the small angles of the triangle? Both of the small angles are equal because the triangle is isosceles. Each right isosceles triangle has three angles, a right angle (900), and the two equal angles. Therefore, the two remaining angles are each equal to 45 degrees. Look at two triangles that are adjacent, they are congruent, because side, angle, side of one triangle, is equal to side, angle, side of the second triangle (SAS=SAS). Each of the two sides is equal to the radius and the angle between the sides is 90 degrees. The hypotenuses of congruent triangles are equal. By similar reasoning, all four of the triangles have equal hypotenuses. We have constructed a four-sided figure. But what is the new four-sided figure? Since each acute angle in the triangles is 45 degrees, two angles from adjacent triangles form an angle of 90 degrees. That means that the four sided figure in the circle is a SQUARE! We constructed a perfect square with a compass and a ruler! Now we will further divide the square into four new triangles. Adjust your compass to a small radius. Put the point of your compass on one corner of the square, rotate your compass and mark one side, label that distance, a. Now move your compass point to the next corner of the square and mark an equal distance, a. Continue for the remaining sides and mark the same distance on all four sides of the square. All the unlabeled distances that remains, we now label b. Now each side of the square has a length of (a + b). What is the area of the square?

The area of the square is side

(a + b)2 = (a + b) (a + b) b b2 ab (a + b)2 = ba + b 2+ a 2+ ab (a + b)2 = a 2 + ab + ba +b 2

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a ba a2

b a

The area of the square is

Rearrange the terms on the right side of the equation.

The area of the square is

Connect the points where a and b meet. The original square has been divided into four new right triangles and a four-sided figure. What is the new four-sided figure? Each new right triangle has a
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side a and a side b connected with a right angle. The four new right triangles are all congruent (SAS=SAS). The hypotenuses of each triangle are equal because the triangles are congruent. Label each hypotenuse, c. Copy one triangle in a horizontal position and a second triangle in a vertical position. The triangles are congruent (SAS=SAS). Congruent triangles have equal areas. The area of the horizontal triangle equals ba and the area of the vertical triangle equals ab. Therefore, ba is equal to ab. The area of the square can now be reduced.

The area of the square is

(a + b)2 = a 2 + 2ab + b 2

The angle of the right triangle opposite side a, label A. The angle opposite side b, label B. Now look inside the circle. In each triangle label the hypotenuse, c, and label angle A, and angle B. Lets look at the four-sided figure in the center. It has four equal sides labeled c. What about the angles of the new four-sided figure? We know that a straight line has an angle of 180 degrees. Looking at one side of the square, (which is a straight line) we see angle A, then the unknown angle of the four sided figure, and finally angle B. However, in the triangle the three angles A, B, and 90 degrees also add to 180 degrees. The side of the square has angles A + B plus the unknown angle. Each triangle has 180 degrees just like a straight line. Since angle A = angle A and angle B = angle B, the third angle of the figure must equal 90 degrees and must be a right angle. Therefore, the inner four-sided figure is also a SQUARE! My Proof now centers on the fact that the area of the original big square is equal to the area of the four right triangles plus the area of the little square.

The area of the original big square is

(a + b)2 = a 2 + 2ab + b 2

The area of the four triangles equals 4 ( ab) which equals 2ab The area of the little square is c2 The area of the original big square is equal to the area of the four triangles plus the area of the little square

(a + b)2 = 4 ( ab) + c2 a 2+ 2ab + b 2 = 2ab + c2

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Subtracting 2 ab from both sides yields Pythagoras Theorem.

a 2 + b 2 = c2
After you complete the construction and understand the proof, please send me an email. My email address is bpariser@tciedu.com

"A GEOMETRICAL PROOF OF PYTHAGORAS THEOREM" Dr. Bertram Pariser

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AUTHOR
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Dr. Bertram Pariser, is a faculty member in the Electronics Engineering Technology program at TCI, The College for Technology. He has published 14 papers and serves as the Faculty Advisor to Tau Alpha Pi National Honor Society. He has a Ph.D. from Columbia University in Electrical Engineering & Plasma Physics, and BS in Electrical Engineering from MIT. bpariser@tciedu.com Dr. Pariser has co-founded and advised many venture companies, four of which (Alcide Corporation, Misonix Inc., Innodata Corp., and Enhanced Services Corp.) are now publicly traded. Dr. Pariser is Vice President of Operations of ValuWare, Inc. a Strategic Market & Business Modeling Systems Software Company and manages ValuWares operations, including financing and investor relations. Bpariser@valuware.com http://www.valuware.com/welcome.html

Appendix In the seventeenth century, Pierre de Fermat, a French mathematician, stated there is no whole number solution to the following equation

an + bn = cn
where n is any number greater than 2. Fermat concluded by saying that a lack of time and paper prevented him from giving a fuller explanation! On June 23rd, 1993 at a conference in England, Andrew Wiles, a mathematician from Princeton University presented a proof of Fermats Enigma. Simon Singh has written a book "Fermats Enigma", Walker and Company, New York, 1997. In his book, Singh presents a short proof of Pythagoras Theorem.
Last printed 8/9/99 12:12 PM C:\BERT\ASEE\Pythagoras.doc

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