Futility Closet

A Novel Proof

Posted in Science & Math by Greg Ross on August 3rd, 2008

hayes trapezoid

We've had some pretty smart presidents. James Garfield devised this proof of the Pythagorean theorem in 1876, while serving in the House of Representatives:

The area of the trapezoid above is

hayes trapezoid area

The area of each green triangle is

hayes small triangles

And the yellow triangle is

hayes large triangle

So:

hayes algebra