Article View: sci.misc
Article #40Re: A U.S. President and Pythagorean?
From: Herman Rubin
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 20:44
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 20:44
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1544 bytes
In article <1992Apr9.153901.5109@newshost.lanl.gov> ttw@beta.lanl.gov (Tony Warnock) writes:
> It was James A. Garfield. His proof was different from the
> preceeding proofs. I do not remember in what manner. The
> Pythagorean Theorem has hundreds of different proofs.
His proof is essentially using half of the figure of Bhaskara's (sp?) proof,
although it is quite possible he did not know that proof. The figure is that
of a trapezoid with vertical left side, and right angles at the left corners.
If the triangle has sides a and b, and hypotenuse c, the figure has horizontal
lengths of a and b, vertical a+b, and one equates the area of the trapezoid
with the sum of two copies of the original triangle and an isosceles right
triangle with side c.
--
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet)
{purdue,pur-ee}!pop.stat!hrubin(UUCP)
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!purdue!mentor.cc.purdue.edu!pop.stat.purdue.edu!hrubin From: hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) Newsgroups: sci.misc,sci.math,misc.wanted,misc.consumers,misc.education Subject: Re: A U.S. President and Pythagorean? Message-ID: <44923@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> Date: 11 Apr 92 20:44:21 GMT References: <1992Apr9.090734.1@scivax.stsci.edu> <1992Apr9.153901.5109@newshost.lanl.gov> Sender: news@mentor.cc.purdue.edu Followup-To: sci.misc Distribution: na Organization: Purdue University Statistics Department Lines: 18