h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hmmm... it says in my maths text book:

'In the Greek world, the claim made by Pythagoras that root(2) was irrational cased an enormous philosophical upheaval in the intellectual community'

Are you sure you've got your facts straight? If not, I'll complain to my maths teacher next chance I get

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Doh... got my logic inverted... that should have been 'If so, I'll complain to my maths teacher'...



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I'm pretty sure. I have seen this story in about 4 books and once or twice on TV.

One of the problematic things about greek philosophers is how little real knowledge there is about them to substantiate what we know from legend to be great importance. For instance, it is not known wether Pythagoras himself produced the "Pythagorean Theorem" or if one or more of his followers did. On the one hand it is easy to attribute this discovery to the man, himself, but more likely it belongs to the later generations of the institution the man created.
Likewise for the attrocities performed in his name. What, if any, role Pythagoras had in the execution (if indeed any such execution occured... or in what manner) of the individual(s) who discovered irrational numbers is extremely suspect.

If there are sources that can be cited, they would be much appreciated.

Another possibly apocryphal Pythagoras anecdote was that he declared that beans have souls, so you can't eat them - because he didn't like eating beans.

I think the murder of the student (Hippeaus) is quite easy to attribute to Pythagorus himself. The loss of the naturals (and ratios thereof) as being all there is of maths would have undermined Pythagorus' teachings and his status as guru. This was a very heavy cult.

3000 years is a long time to go back for details, but this seems a common story told about the events.

It may be apochryphal, but it's a good story, so leave it in.

Yes, it nicely demonstrates how a threat to "rational" beliefs creates irrational actions.
If you kill the messenger, the message disappears.