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The Approximate History of Pythagoras
Description
Praxis the robot and Alan the 鈥渉uman man鈥 find out about some of the contributions Pythagoras made to maths. They discover his famous theorem wasn鈥檛 all his idea.
Classroom Ideas
Expand on the geometrical proof shown to explain why Pythagoras鈥 theorem is true for all right-angled triangles. Explore Pythagoras as a historical figure and look into what information about him is true, what is legend and how we can distinguish between the two. Relate the theorem back to earlier trial and error type understanding of the same principle about right-angled triangles in Egypt and Babylon. Without using rulers, challenge students to create right angles by dividing ropes into 3:4:5 proportions.
