11 March 2014, 6:30pm
Pythagoras? I’m sorry, you have been lied to, Piers Bursill-Hall (University of Cambridge)
Abstract
The modern story of early Greek mathematics simply does not include Pythagoras or the Pythagoreans. There is effectively no evidence for the existence of Pythagoras, he did not prove the theorem, and the Pythagoreans (or any Greeks) did not discover irrationals, let alone the irrationality of 2. They did not, and could not, have made the discovery. And the cult of Pythagoreans, such as they were there in the 5th and 4th century were not engaged in interesting mathematics. Sorry …
Venue: Lecture Room A, Watson Building, University of Birmingham
No charge is made to attend meetings and non-members are welcome.
