MHB History of Sum of Squares: Pythagoras & Beyond

Amer
Messages
259
Reaction score
0
I would like to know some history on the subject like who is the first to think about sum of squares of integers and what he/she was thinking about. I think maybe it is related to Pythagorean triples. Thanks
 
Mathematics news on Phys.org
Amer said:
I would like to know some history on the subject like who is the first to think about sum of squares of integers and what he/she was thinking about. I think maybe it is related to Pythagorean triples. Thanks

Hi Amer,

A small bit of history about this is given in the following Wikipedia article and perhaps by following the links to the references (such as the book "History of the theory of Numbers") you might be able to learn more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat's_theorem_on_sums_of_two_squares
 
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. In Dirac’s Principles of Quantum Mechanics published in 1930 he introduced a “convenient notation” he referred to as a “delta function” which he treated as a continuum analog to the discrete Kronecker delta. The Kronecker delta is simply the indexed components of the identity operator in matrix algebra Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/what-exactly-is-diracs-delta-function/ by...
Fermat's Last Theorem has long been one of the most famous mathematical problems, and is now one of the most famous theorems. It simply states that the equation $$ a^n+b^n=c^n $$ has no solutions with positive integers if ##n>2.## It was named after Pierre de Fermat (1607-1665). The problem itself stems from the book Arithmetica by Diophantus of Alexandria. It gained popularity because Fermat noted in his copy "Cubum autem in duos cubos, aut quadratoquadratum in duos quadratoquadratos, et...
Thread 'Imaginary pythagorus'
I posted this in the Lame Math thread, but it's got me thinking. Is there any validity to this? Or is it really just a mathematical trick? Naively, I see that i2 + plus 12 does equal zero2. But does this have a meaning? I know one can treat the imaginary number line as just another axis like the reals, but does that mean this does represent a triangle in the complex plane with a hypotenuse of length zero? Ibix offered a rendering of the diagram using what I assume is matrix* notation...

Similar threads

Replies
38
Views
4K
Replies
2
Views
2K
Replies
0
Views
2K
Replies
1
Views
2K
Replies
7
Views
3K
Replies
12
Views
3K
Replies
8
Views
1K
Replies
2
Views
2K
Back
Top