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Fun Trivia : Pythagoras Encyclopedia FunTrivia

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    Pythagoras

    According to Pythagoras, the numbers 1, 3, 6, 10, etc. were called what?Pythagoras

      triangular. This can be explained by envisioning the numbers lined up, with 1 on the top row, 2 and 3 on the second row (creating a triangle at 3), 4, 5, 6 on the third row (another triangle) and 7, 8, 9 and 10 on the forth row...all creating triangular forms! Thank you...I hope you learned a little something about the man whose name is synonymous with a theorum!

    Which number was a perfect number, according to Pythagoras?Pythagoras

      10. Incidentally, this tradition of the perfect '10' has been carried down into the modern day. Perhaps our friend Pythagoras was on to something?

    Where did he settle in about 530 B.C.?Pythagoras

      Croton. Croton was a Dorian Greek colony on the boot of Italy, known as 'Magna Graecia'.

    Of which island was Pythagoras a native?Pythagoras

      Samos. Samos is an island in the eastern portion of the Aegean sea, near modern day Turkey.

    To whom was Pythagoras referring when he said, "There are men, and gods and beings like _______"?Pythagoras...A Snowball's Chance

      Pythagoras. I suppose if one created his own religion and famous mathematical theorums, we too could be a little full of ourselves. Pythagoras propagated the idea that the Earth was not the center of the universe, thus making it a planet that had an orbit like the other planets. It is interesting to see as mystic side of Pythagoras coupled with a scientific one.

    In what Greek island was Pythagoras born?Pythagoras...A Snowball's Chance

      Samos. Supposedly after many problems in Samos he moved to Croton (Italy) where he felt safer and able to more easily continue his work. Other famous Samians include Epicurus as well as Aesop.

    Pythagoreans were as much into religion as they were their school of mathematics. What was one of the more unusual rules pertaining to their religion?Pythagoras...A Snowball's Chance

      to abstain from beans. It was also against their religion to stir a fire with iron, to pick up anything which has fallen, or to look into a mirror beside a light. Supposedly, if you do gaze at a mirror as such, it will show you a very haunted version of your home. I found that choice morsel at paranormalsoup.com. I doubt if these beliefs all came from Pythagoras. I thought this was a hoot.

    Where in Italy did Pythagoras finally settle and do the majority of his work? Pythagoras...A Snowball's Chance

      Croton. Pythagoras had many beliefs that were not widely accepted by all Pythagoreans. Around 480 BCE, the Pythagorean Society at Croton was attacked by another fellow Crotonian named Cylon. Pythagoras barely escaped and finally settled in Metapontium where it is said he died there, possibly from suicide.

    According to Pythagoras, what number was the "number of reason?"Pythagoras...A Snowball's Chance

      1. To the Pythagoreans the number one represented the unity that underpinned the whole of creation. The number two was considered the "number of opinion" and was also considered the first female or even number. At the time, zero was not considered a number since it had no value. The number one was actually considered the Pythagoreans' first whole number.

    The 47th Problem of Euclid was better known from the illustration known as what?Pythagoras...A Snowball's Chance

      The Bride's Chair. Known as the "foundation of Freemasonry" by many, the Bride's Chair is said to be illustration of proving the Pythagorean Theorum. Also known as Proof 1, it is the most famous of the Pythagorean propositions. It is the first of Euclid's two proofs.

    What word finishes the phrase supposedly coined by Pythagoras; "Reason is immortal, all else is _______"?Pythagoras...A Snowball's Chance

      mortal. The noted Greek biographer and mathematician Diogenes Laertius, in his most noted work, "Lives of Eminent Philosophers," places his subjects in one of two divisions, the Ionic or the Italian schools. Pythagoras begins Laertius' order in the Italian school where his quote can be found there.

    What number symbolized the sum of all parts according to Pythagoras?Pythagoras...A Snowball's Chance

      10. According to Pythagoras "the number ten is the very nature of number." Even during Pythagoras' time counting to ten was commonly used, by Greeks and even barbarians (non-Greeks). The power of ten has unity even with the number four (the tetrad), because by adding the sum of 1+2+3+4 you equal the number ten. The number ten was known as the sum of all parts and showed that all things were complete. Pythagoras then divided the planets into ten spheres, each with concentric circles. These circles began at the center starting with the globe of divine fire. Next came the seven planets, then the earth, and the Antichthon which was never seen. This tenth "wandering" planet (Antichthon) was said to be a counter-Earth, allowing the solar system to have better balance as the planets orbited a "central" fire.

    While in orbit, the planets produced what, according to Pythagoras?Pythagoras...A Snowball's Chance

      sound. Pythagoras propagated the idea that the Earth was not the center of the universe like Plato did, thus making it a planet that had an orbit like the others. The distance between the planets were mathematically proportionate, with some planets moving at faster speeds and others slower. The planets that moved slower produced lower pitches and the faster ones, a higher pitch. By doing so, each planet in its orbit creates its own note. This "note" coupled with the ratio of the distances of each orbit, make the resultant sound concordant. Remembering that numbers, the Pythagoreans said, caused this harmony, they positioned numbers as the primary principle on which the entire universe was based. The Pythagoreans named this numerical and acoustic coupling, the "harmony of the spheres."

    Pythagoras was the first Greek to realize the morning star and the evening star were both which planet?Pythagoras...A Snowball's Chance

      Venus. The Pythagoreans believed the planets were attached to crystalline spheres and each planet had it's own sphere. These spheres were centered on the Earth which also was in constant motion. Pythagoras initially developed this concept from Anaximander's theory of perfect circular motion.

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