Math

  • Firsts in History,  Math

    Earliest Evidence of Pythagoras’ Theorem

    To answer the question of what is the first evidenced knowledge of the familiar equation, a^2 + b^2 = c^2, named after the Greek philosopher Pythagoras (569-500 B.C.E.), depends on who you ask. Credit for this geometrical proof has been attributed to, of course, namesake Pythagoras, but also to the ancient Babylonians via the tablet Plimpton 322, the ancient Chinese from the Zhou Bi Suan Jing (c. 100 B.C.E.- c. 100 C.E.), the Indian mathematician Bhaskara, and to Euclid who included a variation in his text The Elements. Though the jury may be out on the rightful owner of being the first, it is evident that the ancients understood the…

  • Black History,  Math

    First African-American Grand Master Of Chess

    There are only about a thousand grand masters of chess in the world and only one of them is African-American: Maurice Ashley. He wasn’t even good enough to make his high school chess team. But he studied hard and became a master when he was 20, then, 14 years later– a grand master– a ranking just short of world champion. He’s 45 now and Maurice Ashley has made chess his life. He travels the world bringing chess to kids who might not otherwise be aware of it, often playing…and winning! against an entire room of young hopefuls lined up before him at their chessboards. Some of the upstarts he may…

  • Math

    Pythagoras for Kids

      http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/science/math/pythagoras.htm Pythagoras lived in the 500s BC, and was one of the first Greek mathematical thinkers. He spent most of his life in the Greek colonies in Sicily and southern Italy. He had a group of followers (like the later disciples of Jesus) who followed him around and taught other people what he had taught them. The Pythagoreans were known for their pure lives (they didn’t eatbeans, for example, because they thought beans were not pure enough). They wore their hair long, and wore only simple clothing, and went barefoot. Both men and women were Pythagoreans. Pythagoreans were interested in philosophy, but especially in music and mathematics, two ways of making order out of chaos. Music is noise…