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In mathematics, the Pythagorean theorem or Pythagoras' theorem is a fundamental relation in Euclidean geometry between the three sides of a right triangle.It states that the area of the square whose side is the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares on the other two sides.
As a consequence of the Pythagorean theorem, the hypotenuse is the longest side of any right triangle; that is, the hypotenuse is longer than either of the triangle's legs. For example, given the length of the legs a = 5 and b = 12, then the sum of the legs squared is (5 × 5) + (12 × 12) = 169, the square of the hypotenuse.
The legs and hypotenuse of a right triangle satisfy the Pythagorean theorem: the sum of the areas of the squares on two legs is the area of the square on the hypotenuse, + =. If the lengths of all three sides of a right triangle are integers, the triangle is called a Pythagorean triangle and its side lengths are collectively known as a ...
[4] [6] The first three of these define the primitive Pythagorean triples (the ones in which the two sides and hypotenuse have no common factor), derive the standard formula for generating all primitive Pythagorean triples, compute the inradius of Pythagorean triangles, and construct all triangles with sides of length at most 100. [6]
The formulas show how to transform any right triangle with integer legs into another right triangle with integer legs whose hypotenuse is the square of the first triangle's hypotenuse. A Pythagorean prime is a prime number of the form 4 n + 1 {\displaystyle 4n+1} .
The area of a triangle can be demonstrated, for example by means of the congruence of triangles, as half of the area of a parallelogram that has the same base length and height. A graphic derivation of the formula T = h 2 b {\displaystyle T={\frac {h}{2}}b} that avoids the usual procedure of doubling the area of the triangle and then halving it.
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This theorem should not be confused with proposition 48 in book 1 of Euclid's Elements, the converse of the Pythagorean theorem, which states that if the square on one side of a triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides then the other two sides contain a right angle.