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    Inspire Nomination

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    hareesh1048
    The document visually proves the Pythagorean theorem. It starts with a large square and two smaller inner squares, then sections the remaining area into rectangles. After rearrangement, it derives the formula a^2 + b^2 = c^2, proving why the Pythagorean theorem works.

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    Inspire Nomination

    Uploaded by

    hareesh1048
    16 views6 pages
    The document visually proves the Pythagorean theorem. It starts with a large square and two smaller inner squares, then sections the remaining area into rectangles. After rearrangement, it derives the formula a^2 + b^2 = c^2, proving why the Pythagorean theorem works.

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    INSPIRE NOMINATION

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    The document visually proves the Pythagorean theorem. It starts with a large square and two smaller inner squares, then sections the remaining area into rectangles. After rearrangement, it derives the formula a^2 + b^2 = c^2, proving why the Pythagorean theorem works.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    16 views6 pages

    Inspire Nomination

    Uploaded by

    hareesh1048
    The document visually proves the Pythagorean theorem. It starts with a large square and two smaller inner squares, then sections the remaining area into rectangles. After rearrangement, it derives the formula a^2 + b^2 = c^2, proving why the Pythagorean theorem works.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    You are on page 1of 6

    Visual Proof of the Pythagorean Theorem

    Why does a² + b² = c²?

    The Pythagorean Theorem, undoubtedly one of the most famous


    formulas there is. A classic among high school classrooms. A
    pillar of mathematics education. Surely, you’re familiar with it?
    But have you stopped to think about why it works? Why does
    a² + b² = c²? or have you just accepted it?

    So for all you visual learners out there, you’re in luck because the
    visual proof of the Pythagorean Theorem is as insightful as it is
    elegant.

    Visual Proof

    Start by making one big square, then place two smaller squares
    inside it.

    It doesn’t really matter what size these smaller squares are, all that
    matters is that when side by side they’re the same length as one side
    of the big square. Something like this for instance:
    I’m going to call the side lengths of the maroon
    square a and the side lengths of the tan square b. That
    means the maroon square has an area of a² and the tan
    square has an area of b².

    Step 2

    Let’s section out the remaining area of the big square into
    rectangles.
    We know that the side length of our large square is a+b. This is
    handy because it can help us figure out the missing lengths of the
    rectangles.

    Once we fill in those missing lengths, we realize we have two


    identical rectangles with areas of ab.

    So the area of the large square, (a+b)², is equal to sum of the areas
    of the four shapes inside it: a² + b² + ab + ab, or equivalently:

    Equation 1

    Now let’s do some rearranging.


    Step 3

    First draw a diagonal in each rectangle. Since the two rectangles are
    identical, their diagonals will be the same length. Let’s call that
    length c.

    Now here’s the tricky part. I’m going to remove the maroon and tan
    squares and rotate the two inner triangles so that they’re arranged
    along the edge of the big square as well.

    That leaves me with this new arrangement:


    In the process of rotating the two inner triangles we have made a
    new square with side lengths c and an area of c².

    We have also created a new way of describing the area of (a+b)². It is


    now the sum of: c² + 4 triangles of area 1/2(ab).

    Which can be simplified to:

    Equation 2
    Step 4:

    We now have two formulas for ( a + b )², which means we can set
    equation 1, from earlier, and equation 2 equal to one another.

    Lastly, subtract 2ab from both sides, and look there’s the
    Pythagorean theorem!

    The Pythagorean Theorem!

    Looking back at our last square diagram, we see that the right
    triangles have legs a and b, with a hypotenuse of c as anticipated.

    Mystery solved! Now we know why the sum of the square of the
    legs of a right triangle equal the square of the hypotenuse.

    THANK YOU

    STUDENT NAME: IPPAPALLY SHIVALEELA

    TEACHER NAME: P. ANITHAMMA

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