TE
TechEcho
Home24h TopNewestBestAskShowJobs
GitHubTwitter
Home

TechEcho

A tech news platform built with Next.js, providing global tech news and discussions.

GitHubTwitter

Home

HomeNewestBestAskShowJobs

Resources

HackerNews APIOriginal HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 TechEcho. All rights reserved.

Visual walk through of Euclid's proof of the Pythagorean theorem

97 pointsby vicapowabout 11 years ago

14 comments

netrusabout 11 years ago
If you enjoy visualizations of Euclidean geometry, I highly recommend the work of Byrne:<p><a href="http://www.math.ubc.ca/~cass/Euclid/byrne.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.math.ubc.ca&#x2F;~cass&#x2F;Euclid&#x2F;byrne.html</a><p>Example: <a href="http://www.math.ubc.ca/~cass/Euclid/book1/images/bookI-prop1.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.math.ubc.ca&#x2F;~cass&#x2F;Euclid&#x2F;book1&#x2F;images&#x2F;bookI-prop1...</a><p>(I found this to be one of the most impressive examples used by Edward Tufte in his books).
评论 #7488805 未加载
onedognightabout 11 years ago
In case it&#x27;s not obvious, you can drag the points in the diagram to change the size of triangles and the associated squares.
评论 #7494485 未加载
评论 #7490444 未加载
justinpombrioabout 11 years ago
Or, if you want a proof with fewer words, <a href="http://isomorphismes.tumblr.com/image/790452593" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;isomorphismes.tumblr.com&#x2F;image&#x2F;790452593</a>
评论 #7490919 未加载
评论 #7490062 未加载
评论 #7491507 未加载
symmetricsaurusabout 11 years ago
Very nice visualization.<p>Reading these old proofs is quite tedious but having this visualization makes it much easier to follow.<p>Still, trying to understand Euclid makes you thankful for the more than 2000 years of advancements in mathematical notation and theory.
评论 #7488560 未加载
agumonkeyabout 11 years ago
Funny, few days ago I wanted to write it from scratch starting through the geometric &#x27;interpretation&#x27;, just to see if I remembered. I had to use `square of sum` identity though.<p><a href="http://imgur.com/umPQpeu" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;umPQpeu</a><p>ps: vector editor is not my website.
Houshalterabout 11 years ago
I feel stupid. This is very difficult to follow.
avmichabout 11 years ago
Not very clean. It&#x27;s not immediately obvious how some statements are derived from initial axioms.
graemeabout 11 years ago
A bit OT, but I&#x27;m interesting in going through Euclid by drawing it with a compass and ruler.<p>Is there any good guide to doing this? I have Byrne&#x27;s copy of Euclid. But I found there were multiple points I got stuck when trying to draw it myself.
philtoddabout 11 years ago
I tried several times to explain the essence of Euclid&#x27;s proof to a non-mathematician (my wife). Here is the explanation which clicked.<p><a href="http://euclidsmuse.com/app?id=344" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;euclidsmuse.com&#x2F;app?id=344</a>
kljohnsonabout 11 years ago
Here&#x27;s another visual proof:<p><a href="http://mobius.maplesoft.com/maplenet/mobius/application.jsp?appId=9468543" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;mobius.maplesoft.com&#x2F;maplenet&#x2F;mobius&#x2F;application.jsp?...</a>
MarkTeeabout 11 years ago
Here&#x27;s a nice (physical) visualization that uses water:<p><a href="http://imgur.com/gallery/1ZGJGD6" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;gallery&#x2F;1ZGJGD6</a>
commlinkabout 11 years ago
Well done, but it would have been better if the graphics depicted a right scalene triangle -- the more general case -- rather than a right isosceles triangle.
评论 #7488353 未加载
评论 #7488349 未加载
mishmaxabout 11 years ago
Cool. What made you choose Angular over D3.js for this btw?
评论 #7490562 未加载
gravity13about 11 years ago
Interesting. What is Setosa?