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Pythagorean theorem question

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mgurak
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25 May 2024, 1:47 am

I read some time ago that two teenagers may have proved the Pythagorean theorem using trigonometry. This may sound like a joke question but it's not. If their proof is valid, would they rename it? What would it be now, Pythagoras' Law?


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25 May 2024, 3:03 am

mgurak wrote:
I read some time ago that two teenagers may have proved the Pythagorean theorem using trigonometry. This may sound like a joke question but it's not. If their proof is valid, would they rename it? What would it be now, Pythagoras' Law?


Hmmm since they didn't invent it, just used trigonometry to prove it, I don't see why should they rename it. Jason Zimba did it in 2009, yet the law wasn't named after him.
https://forumgeom.fau.edu/FG2009volume9/FG200925.pdf

They haven't published their proof yet (just some ppt presentation can be found), it still needs to be validated.

Btw, the Sumerians used that theorem long before Pythagoras, so it's not his law either.
https://www.livescience.com/earliest-fo ... an-triplet
https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/the-b ... e-was-born



Mona Pereth
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25 May 2024, 9:42 am

Proving the Pythagorean theorem using trignonometry??? I thought trigonometry, itself, was largely based on the Pythagorean theorem, hence could not be used to prove it?

Looking at the PDF file, it appears that the person just uses some trigonometric functions, without most of the rest of trigonometry, as part of a proof. I haven't yet looked at the proof in detail, but I guess that can work, although it seems to me like an unnecessary step.


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Last edited by Mona Pereth on 25 May 2024, 11:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

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25 May 2024, 11:18 am

This proof wouldn't change its status because there are thousands of valid proofs already out there. "Theorem" means it's been proven. I have a geometric proof hanging on my wall that's centuries older than Pythagoras.


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