代表頁に戻る
易しい英語で
.ピタゴラスの定理の証明
.を3種類
.紹介している。
英語の学習なので数学的なことはあまり気にしない方がよい。
易 5分
135wpm
字幕 : 開始後
で字幕On/Off、
で言語選択。文字の色やサイズ゙はオプションから。
. 動画を見るとき、
でフルスクリーンに拡大すると見やすい。
★下記英文は
ポップアップ辞書 が使えます。
トランスクリプト(テキスト)のリンクはない。
What do Euclid, twelve-year-old Einstein, and American President James Garfield have in common? They all came up with elegant proofs for the famous
Pythagorean theorem, the rule that says for a
right triangle(直角三角形), the square of one side plus the square of the other side is equal to the square of the
hypotenuse(斜辺 [hɑip
ά:tənu:s] ).
発音注意 Pythagorean :[piθægəríən]. ピタゴラスの
Pythagoras :[piθǽgərəs] ピタゴラス
In other words, a²+b²=c² (
c squared). This statement is one of the most fundamental rules of geometry, and the basis for practical applications, like constructing stable buildings and
triangulating(三角測量すること)
GPS coordinates(GPS座標).
The theorem is named for Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher and mathematician in the 6th century B.C., but it was known more than a thousand years earlier. A Babylonian tablet from around 1800 B.C. lists 15 sets of numbers that satisfy the theorem.
Some historians speculate that Ancient Egyptian
surveyors(測量士) used one such set of numbers, 3, 4, 5, to make square corners. The theory is that surveyors could stretch a knotted rope with twelve equal segments to form a triangle with sides of length 3, 4 and 5. According to the
converse(逆) of the Pythagorean theorem, that has to make a right triangle, and, therefore, a square corner.
And the earliest known Indian mathematical texts written between 800 and 600 B.C. state that a rope stretched across the
diagonal(対角線) of a square produces a square twice as large as the original one.
That relationship can be derived from the Pythagorean theorem. But how do we know that the theorem is true for every right triangle on a flat surface, not just the ones these mathematicians and surveyors knew about? Because we can prove it. Proofs use existing mathematical rules and logic to demonstrate that a theorem must hold true all the time.
One classic proof often attributed to Pythagoras himself uses a strategy called proof by rearrangement. Take four identical right triangles with side lengths a and b and hypotenuse length c. Arrange them so that their hypotenuses form a tilted square.
The area of that square is c². Now rearrange the triangles into two
rectangles(矩形), leaving smaller squares on either side. The areas of those squares are a² and b². Here's the key. The total area of the figure didn't change, and the areas of the triangles didn't change. So the empty space in one, c² must be equal to the empty space in the other, a² + b².
Another proof comes from a fellow Greek mathematician Euclid and was also stumbled upon almost 2,000 years later by twelve-year-old Einstein. This proof divides one right triangle into two others and uses the principle that if the corresponding angles of two triangles are the same, the ratio of their sides is the same, too. So for these three
similar(相似の) triangles, you can write these expressions for their sides. Next, rearrange the terms. And finally, add the two equations together and simplify to get ab²+ac²=bc², or a²+b²=c².
Here's one that uses
tessellation(平面充填), a repeating geometric pattern for a more visual proof. Can you see how it works? Pause the video if you'd like some time to think about it. Here's the answer. The dark gray square is a² and the light gray one is b². The one outlined in blue is c². Each blue outlined square contains the pieces of exactly one dark and one light gray square, proving the Pythagorean theorem again.
この平面充填はインド発祥の証明法。 三角形の合同パスルのようにややこしい。
And if you'd really like to convince yourself, you could build a turntable with three square boxes of equal depth connected to each other around a right triangle. If you fill the largest square with water and spin the turntable, the water from the large square will perfectly fill the two smaller ones. The Pythagorean theorem has more than 350 proofs, and counting, ranging from brilliant to
obscure(あいまいな). Can you add your own to the mix?
-