Pythagoras Research Paper

Pythagoras of Samos

Pythagoras of Samos was born sometime around 569 BC and since then has been said to be a strange and mysterious man. There are no writings of Pythagoras himself but his teachings and beliefs continue to influence modern philosophers and scientists. Pythagoras was born on the Greek island of Samos in the Mediterranean Sea, and although information about his early life in Samos is unknown, it is known that the island of Samos was near an Ionian colony known to be famous for being the birthplace of Greek Philosophy. During this time the Island of Samos was being ruled by the tyranny of Polycrates, who had come to power in 538 BC. Pythagoras felt the need to escape from this dictator which led him to southern Italy,
“ 'All is number”, was his starting point, to the most famous accomplishment attributed to Pythagoras: the Pythagorean theorem. According to Ed Downy “The most common form, the theorem says: a2 + b2 = c2, where a and b are the lengths of the legs of the triangle and c is the length of the hypotenuse.” Although the Pythagorean theorem was known to the Babylonians 1000 years earlier he may have been the first to prove it. Another contribution of Pythagoras and his followers is music. Pythagoras essentially created music in that he discovered the way it works. “Pythagoras noticed that vibrating strings produce harmonious tones when the ratios of the lengths of the strings are whole numbers. After making this discovery, he found that these same ratios could be extended further to other instruments.” as stated by Athanase Papadopoulos in Mathematics and Music Theory. These mathematical patterns became the foundation of music and surely benefited Pythagoras’ claim that, everything could be reduced to numbers and
Pythagoras, is known to be one of the first to teach that the Earth was at the center of the universe. He was also one of the first to teach that the world was round, an idea not to be proven for almost another one thousand years. Pythagoras has also influenced a number of philosophical writers, such as Plato, Aristotle, and Porphyry. In conclusion, Pythagoras made many contributions to modern society. Thus, making him recognizable as a formidable philosopher and mathematician even today. Pythagoras will always be a significant person in history, because of the discoveries made by him, his students in ancient Greece, and the growing amount of people studying his teachings today and who will continue to learn and follow his