Who really Invented Pythagorean Theorem?

Question

Ok i know that everyone thinks that Pythagoras invented the Pythagorean theorem, but the truth is that he might have been the first one saying A^2+B^2=C^2, but he certainly wasn't the first one using it.

Based on the Plimpton 322 tablet housed in Columbia University which dates 7289 bc the babylonians and assyrians understood the sides of triangles for example to get the 3,4,5 triangle you need to understand the basis of Pythagorean Theorem. So yes please comment and tell me what you think and why they don't change the name of Pythagorean theorem to something else that gives credit to these two civilizations.

http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Babylonian_Pythagoras.html

Thank you for reading.

Answer 1

The theorem is named after the Greek mathematician Pythagoras, who by tradition is credited with its discovery and proof,[1] although knowledge of the theorem almost certainly predates him.

Here is what I could find on the history

The history of the theorem can be divided into four parts: knowledge of Pythagorean triples, knowledge of the relationship between the sides of a right triangle, knowledge of the relationship between adjacent angles, and proofs of the theorem.

Megalithic monuments from circa 2500 BC in Egypt, and in Northern Europe, incorporate right triangles with integer sides.[3] Bartel Leendert van der Waerden conjectures that these Pythagorean triples were discovered algebraically.[4]

Written between 2000 and 1786 BC, the Middle Kingdom Egyptian papyrus Berlin 6619 includes a problem whose solution is a Pythagorean triple.

During the reign of Hammurabi the Great, the Mesopotamian tablet Plimpton 322, written between 1790 and 1750 BC, contains many entries closely related to Pythagorean triples.

The Baudhayana Sulba Sutra, the dates of which are given variously as between the 8th century BC and the 2nd century BC, in India, contains a list of Pythagorean triples discovered algebraically, a statement of the Pythagorean theorem, and a geometrical proof of the Pythagorean theorem for an isosceles right triangle.

The Apastamba Sulba Sutra (circa 600 BC) contains a numerical proof of the general Pythagorean theorem, using an area computation. Van der Waerden believes that "it was certainly based on earlier traditions". According to Albert BÅ­rk, this is the original proof of the theorem; he further theorizes that Pythagoras visited Arakonam, India, and copied it.

Pythagoras, whose dates are commonly given as 569–475 BC, used algebraic methods to construct Pythagorean triples, according to Proklos's commentary on Euclid. Proklos, however, wrote between 410 and 485 AD. According to Sir Thomas L. Heath, there was no attribution of the theorem to Pythagoras for five centuries after Pythagoras lived. However, when authors such as Plutarch and Cicero attributed the theorem to Pythagoras, they did so in a way which suggests that the attribution was widely known and undoubted.[5]

Around 400 BC, according to Proklos, Plato gave a method for finding Pythagorean triples that combined algebra and geometry. Circa 300 BC, in Euclid's Elements, the oldest extant axiomatic proof of the theorem is presented.

Written sometime between 500 BC and 200 AD, the Chinese text Chou Pei Suan Ching (周髀算经), (The Arithmetical Classic of the Gnomon and the Circular Paths of Heaven) gives a visual proof of the Pythagorean theorem — in China it is called the "Gougu Theorem" (勾股定理) — for the (3, 4, 5) triangle. During the Han Dynasty, from 202 BC to 220 AD, Pythagorean triples appear in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, together with a mention of right triangles.[6]

The first recorded use is in China, known as the "Gougu theorem" (勾股定理) and in India known as the Bhaskara Theorem.

There is much debate on whether the Pythagorean theorem was discovered once or many times. Boyer (1991) thinks the elements found in the Shulba Sutras may be of Mesopotamian derivation.[7]

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