Pythagoras: Father of the Pythagorean Theorem
...ite Homer. There were many philosophers who influenced Pythagoras while he was a young man, but the biggest influence of all was Pherekydes the teacher of Pythagoras. Two other men introduced Pythagoras to mathematical ideas and their names are Thales and Anaximander who lived on Miletus. Thales taught Pythagoras when he was 20 by that time Thales was an old man. He made a strong impression on Pythagoras and did not teach him much but advised him to travel to Egypt to learn more about mathematics and astronomy. Anaximander lectured on Miletus and Pytagoras attended the lectures. Anaximander’s lecture influenced Pythagoras’s views later on. In 535 B.C Pythagoras went to Egypt. He made his journey a few years after the tyrant Polycrates seized control of Samos. He and Polycrates were friendly during this time. Egypt suggested that Pythagoras visit the temples and take part in discussions with the priests. Pythagoras was refused admission to all the temples except one at Diospolis where he was accepted into the priesthood after completing the rites necessary. Pythagoras learned Geometry from the Egyptians but he was already aquainted with it from prior study. In 525 BC Cambyses II the king of Persia, invaded Egypt. After winning a battle that occurred at the Nile Delta He captured Heliopolis and Memphis, the Egyptian forces fell and Pythagoras was taken prisoner and taken to Babylon. While he was there he became associated with the Magoi people he was instructed in their sacred rites and learned about a very mystical worship of the gods. He reached perfection in arithmetic and music and other mathematical sciences taught by Babylonians. In 520 BC Pythagoras left Babylon and went back to Samos. Polycrates had been killed in about 522 BC and Cambyses died in the summer of 522 BC either by committing suicide. Pythagoras’s freedom is never explained so their death may have something to do with it. Pythagoras made a journey to Crete shortly after his return to study the system of laws there. When he retuned to Samos he founded a school and named it semicircle. After he finished that project he made a cave outside the city a private site of his philosophical teaching. He spends most of the night and day finding the uses of mathematics. I...