Short Summary Of Pythagoras

Ogechi Nwabueze

Professor Lisa Wiseman

English 101

8 December 2016

A Summary on Pythagoras Pythagoras is often referred to as the first pure mathematician. He was born on the island of Samos, Greece in 569 BC. Various writings place his death between 500 BC and 475 BC in Metapontum, Lucania, Italy (Douglass). His father, Mnesarchus, was a gem merchant. His mother's name was Pythias was said to be a native of Samos (O'Connor and Robertson). Some source says Pythagoras had two brothers, others says he had three. He spent his early years on the island of Samos, off the coast of modern Turkey. He left Samos for Egypt in 535 B.C. to study with the priests in the temples. Many of the practices he later created like code of secrecy, striving

Others say that Theano was one of his students, not his wife, and say that Pythagoras never married and had no children (Douglass). He is an important figure in the development of mathematics yet relatively little about his mathematical achievements is known. Unlike many later Greek mathematicians, where at least we have some of the books which they wrote, we have nothing of Pythagoras's writings. The society which he led, half religious and half scientific, followed a code of secrecy which means that today, Pythagoras is a mysterious figure (O'Connor and Robertson). Little is known of Pythagoras’s childhood. This is because of his life of secrecy and privacy. The Pythagorean Theorem is a cornerstone of mathematics, and continues to be so interesting to mathematicians that there are more than 400 different proofs of the theorem, including an original proof by President Garfield

He was the master and had many followers. They lived in the society he created. They were often referred to as the Pythagoreans and they lived by rules of behavior. This included what the ate, what they wore, and when they spoke. He had two groups of followers. One group “had no personal possessions and were vegetarians. Another group of his followers who lived apart from the school were allowed to have personal possessions and were not expected to be vegetarians.” (Douglass). Despite the differences in the groups, they all worked together on theories and