Pythagoras has been known as one of the purest mathematicians of all time. Some feel he was so pure that he should be treated as a divine individual. Although he is known for being a mathematician, in many ways people argue he was never the creator of his accredited work. For example, when he made his famous trip to Egypt, he came back and said he had discovered what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. However, it has been argued many times that Pythagoras simply took the idea from Egypt and told his friends back home basically it was something he came up with. This notion of stealing credit comes up a lot in Pythagoras' life, another instance being when he created his own secret society of mathematicians that came up with a lot of well known ideas still used in today's world.
Pythagoras was a man that seemed to be full of himself. This can be interpreted as Pythagoras created his own secret society and his followers treated him as a God. In order to be admitted to the secret society, one must have the sacred symbol on one's hand known as the pentad, or five pointed star. While in the secret society, many of the followers tried to collaborate with Pythagoras in order to discover new ways of using mathematics. One of the downfalls of being a follower and coming up with a new great idea was that most of the time Pythagoras received the credit for said new idea. It is believed that even Pythagoras himself didn't contribute to much of what his name holds to today as he simply took his followers' work and slapped his name on it or potentially killed you. In fact, it is said that when one of his followers thought of irrational numbers, Pythagoras simply drowned the individual and made the rest of his followers swear to never speak of his action again. Pythagoras and his secret society shared many ideas that have been well developed to stand the test of time.
In many ways, the mathematics presented by Pythagoras is used in present time. Of course, there's usage like the Pythagorean Theorem is schools and such, but there's also uses such as in art pieces or architecture. One of these instances is known as the golden rectangle. The golden rectangle is a rectangle that infinitesimally halves itself by continuously drawing rectangles within a rectangle that are half the size of the previous one. The process of of doing this creates a spiral motion. Along with the spiral, the golden rectangle was used in a lot of Western architecture and art such as paintings of people and buildings. The idea of the golden rectangle was so popular that it is still used in modern day architecture when designing new buildings. In one other form of art, being music, Pythagoras also made a significant contribution by discovering octaves. Pythagoras and his group of followers discovered that when a musical string is plucked, the next highest octave can be found by shortening the string by half and then plucking the string. Obviously, this is still used in today's world as music is still a prominent form of culture.
Pythagoras certainly lived an interesting life, but it is hardly known how exactly he died. It is known, however, that he died in 495 BC. Unfortunately, not enough evidence supports one possibility strong enough to deduce how he passed.
Why should students learn about Pythagoras? Simply to understand the truth of his life. Most students find mathematics boring and non-enjoyable. By learning about Pythagoras, with how interesting his history is, students may give more attention to the curriculum. If students learned how Pythagoras influenced music or how he was said to be a leader of a cult, anything is possible to grasp student attention. A small instruction about Pythagoras while learning the Pythagorean Theorem may be a way to engage students more and enrich their knowledge outside of the standard curriculum.
So, what has Pythagoras brought to the mathematical world? Some say he made significant contributions to the mathematical world and some would say that he presented a lot to the mathematical world. With the speculation that Pythagoras simply took many individuals' ideas and made them as his own merit, it's hard to decipher whether he made mathematical contributions to the world. It is safe to safe that he presented to the world a lot of helpful ideas in mathematics, but to some that's about all we can say for him. There's no question that Pythagoras was smart as he was a major player in being a mathematician and having his own religion, but nobody will ever really know how much he contributed of his own ideas to the world. Pythagoras is the man, the math, and the religion of his time, but his own ideas may be something of simply a myth or a legend.
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