The Pythagorean Theorem: A 4,000-Year History

By any measure, the Pythagorean theorem is the most famous statement in all of mathematics, one remembered from high school geometry class by even the most math-phobic students. Well over four hundred proofs are known to exist, including ones by a twelve-year-old Einstein, a young blind girl, Leonardo da Vinci, and a future president of the United States. Here—perhaps for the first time in English—is the full story of this famous theorem.


Although attributed to Pythagoras, the theorem was k...