PYTHAGOREAN

, or Pythagoric System, among the Ancients, was the same as the Copernican system among the Moderns. In this system, the sun is supposed at rest in the centre, with the earth and all the planets revolving about him, each in their orbits. See System. |

It was so called, as having been maintained and cultivated by Pythagoras, and his followers; not that it was invented by him, for it was much older.

Pythagorean Theorem, is that in the 47th proposition of the 1st book of Euclid's Elements; viz, that in a right-angled triangle, the square of the longest side, is equal to the sum of both the squares of the two shorter sides. It has been said that Pythagoras offered a hecatomb, or sacrifice of 100 oxen, to the gods, for inspiring him with the discovery of so remarkable a property.