Roger Cooke in the Notices of the American
Mathematical Society , April 2010 —
"Life on the Mathematical Frontier:
Legendary Figures and Their Adventures"
"In most cases involving the modern era, there
are enough documents to produce a clear picture
of mathematical developments, and conjectures
for which there is no eyewitness or documentary
evidence are not needed. Even so, legends do
arise. (Who has not heard the 'explanation' of
the absence of a Nobel Prize in mathematics?)
The situation is different regarding ancient math-
ematics, however, especially in the period before
Plato’s students began to study geometry. Much
of the prehistory involves allegations about the
mysterious Pythagoreans, and sorting out what is
reliable from what is not is a tricky task.
In this article, I will begin with some modern
anecdotes that have become either legend or
folklore, then work backward in time to take a
more detailed look at Greek mathematics, especially
the Pythagoreans, Plato, and Euclid. I hope at the
very least that the reader finds my examples
amusing, that being one of my goals. If readers
also take away some new insight or mathematical
aphorisms, expressing a sense of the worthiness of
our calling, that would be even better."
Aphorism: "Triangles are square."
(American Mathematical Monthly , June-July 1984)
Insight: The Square-Triangle Theorem.