US President: James A Garfield
As the 20th President of the United States in 1881, James Garfield came up with an elegant proof of the Pythagorean Theorem in 1876 while being a Congressman. His proof of this well-known theorem was later published in the New England Journal of Education
Without further ado, let’s dive in!
a² + b² = c² 👨⚖️
President Proving With A Trapezium?
To start off, we will construct an arbitrary right-angled triangle
We then combine this triangle with an identical triangle as follows
We have connected two vertices of our right-angled triangles and constructed another triangle, and the whole figure is now a trapezium.
The new blue triangle is a right-angled isosceles triangle with side lengths of c.
The key to this proof is to consider the fact that the trapezium is made of two red triangles and one blue triangle. They have the same area.
Here’s a challenge for you. Can you prove the theorem with the information above?
That’s it. This is James Garfield’s proof of the Pythagorean Theorem!
He is proud …
