Pythagorus - stuck on homework

[smartyparts]

My Y8 ds has got to come up with a Pythagorus theorem other than the 'square of the hypotenuse is equal to the square of the other two sides on a right angled triangle'. I have no clue and nor does he.

Any clever types able to help?

Pythagoras was also credited with devising the tetractys, the triangular figure of four rows, which add up to the perfect number, ten. As a mystical symbol, it was very important to the worship of the Pythagoreans, who would swear oaths by it:
And the inventions were so admirable, and so divinised by those who understood them, that the members used them as forms of oath: "By him who handed to our generation the tetractys, source of the roots of ever-flowing nature."
?Iamblichus, Vit. Pyth.

users.ucom.net/~vegan/images/tetractys.gif

Something like this?

You could link it to an investigation of triangular numbers, differences and patterns.

Blimey! That's marvellous, thanks!

Have copied and pasted just your text and e-mailed it to dh, so he'll now think I'm terribly clever

I'm not clear whether you mean another completely different theorem by Pythagorus (think he had a couple of others but would have to google), or whether your son is supposed to express the theorem in a different way?
So a2=b2+c^2 where a is the hypotenuse (can't find how to do squared signs but hope that makes sense)
If we make c the subject of the equation it becomes c=square root of (a2+b2)

My pleasure. Google is my lover.

I'm known as a wiz on google, but it flummoxed me!

No, worldgonecrazy - a completely different theorem