I need somebody smart to teach me everything they know about the Pythagorean theorem, please.
When you have a right angled triangle, and you know the length of 2 sides (any), you can calculate the length of the 3rd one because this guy (PYTHAGORES) worked really hard to prove there's a formula that's always true with a right angled triangle. That's the formula: a² + b² = c² c is the side opposite of the right angle, a and b are the 2 other sides. Plug in the numbers, do the algebra (you need help with that too or is it fine?) and you should have the length of whatever side you were looking for. WHY? Well, there's a whole theorem with geometric proofs and all that makes this relationship alway true. Not sure how much expelnation of that you need if all you do is applying the formula.
I watch Vi Hart's YouTube channel because she is a skilled mathematician and storyteller. I get math when she presents it. And I just watch her videos because they are good. Not because I need the math. Here's her answer to your question, visually presented: Pythagoras via Origami
Well, thanks for the video, truley, now I know what it is, which is very helpful, but, that's not exactly what I needed.
Ah, Just too many things... I give up. All I want to is be smart but it'd just so fucking dificult!
Wow, I just noticed the tag that was put up on this topic, well, its actually not homework, it's on worksheets and stuff and I'm failing brutally because I don't know a shit's worth about math.
cut-the-knot has a nice post on Euclid's proof. If you have specific questions many of us can probably answer them for you, but "everything about the Pythagorean theorem" is not a specific question.
Ok, the main thing I need to know is many things, but here's one of them, the problems like this are driving me crazy: I can't get the image, but imagine a triangle, one length is 6m, one length is 8m, and one length is c, then it asks, what is the length of the hypotenuse.
You know by the Pythagorean theorem, so all that's left is a little algebra. Since both sides are equal, their square roots are equal, so getting there just depends on knowing the theorem and a little bit of algebra. If it's the first part that's giving you trouble you should study the proof until you can see why it's true, because then remembering it is easy, but most just memorize it. If it's the second then review your algebra. Your textbook sucks, because all high school math textbooks suck, but it's not impossible to make sense of. 6² + 8² = c² c = √( 6² + 8²) = 10
So the Pythagorean theorem is a set formula? If so, can you provide it.
It's not a formula, it's a theorem, hence the name. If a and b are two sides of a right triangle, and c is the hypotenuse, then a² + b² = c² . Do not just remember a² + b² = c², the "if a and b are two sides of a right triangle" gives the condition under which that relationship between 3 lengths holds. If you have a triangle which is not a right triangle, then the Pythagorean theorem tells you nothing directly.
Ah, jeez can you, um, "dumb it down for me"?
I can't do that because then I can't ask the video questions afterwards, and my teacher fucking hates me, please help out.
This cannot be emphasized enough. YouTube and Google and stackoverflow literally took me from a film school drop out to a mildly successful web developer. To this day, I consider my best skill the ability to Google. I have two clients who literally pay me $50/hr to write numbered steps when they can't figure out how to get that Dropbox link or save a Web page as an image. Us youngins have it easy. Don't take that for granted, OP. You can do anything if you have the ability to search, listen, learn, and repeat.