The Legacy of Pythagoras

Challenging Pythagoras (1x3)

Air date: Jul 15, 2008

In Part 3, "Challenging Pythagoras", the documentary takes a different turn. The viewer is introduced to the idea that the nearly sacred Pythagorean theorem may not always be applicable. This segment explores how the ancient fundamentals of geometry have had to be tweaked and rethought in order to fit with our changing knowledge of the world. Beginning with the 2200-year-old story of how Eratosthenes of Alexandria not only found out the world was round but also accurately calculated its circumference, we see how right triangles had to be bent, so to speak, to fit with a spherical world. For pre-modern mariners, it was a matter of life and death.