Everyone has learned of the Pythagorean theorem in maths class:
In a right triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides (a² + b² = c²).
A lesser known fact is that Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician who came up with the theorem, had a school where numbers were essentially worshipped. The school of Pythagoras were obsessed with whole numbers and their ratios, believing the universe was built around whole numbers. Their motto was “All is number”.
In 520BC, a mathematician named Hippasus was murdered by members of the school of Pythagoras, by being thrown off the side of a ship. Why did a group of scholars go as far as killing a fellow mathematician? The reason lies in a special number.
Hippasus raised an interesting question regarding the Pythagorean theorem. Imagine a square where each side is 1 unit long. What is the length of the diagonal?
Using the theorem a² + b² = c²: 1² + 1² = 2 = c². Ergo, c = √2. This does not appear to be so controversial. The Pythagoreans would reason that it was simply a ratio between two whole numbers, much like ½ or ¾.
But as they tried to quantify what this ratio was, a horrifying truth emerged – no ratio between whole numbers could produce √2. It is what we now call an irrational number.
This was heresy – how can such a number exist in a universe built around whole numbers? The Pythagoreans would not allow this. Hippasus tried to argue that √2 was just as real a number as any other, but his attempts to propagate the knowledge of irrational numbers was quashed through murder.
Knowledge is power, but knowledge can also lead to tragedy.
