Click here to listen to the first part
If you are having problems with your sound, please click here.

“ ‘Number rules the Universe,’” said Miss Wallace. “This the motto of the Pythagorean School. Who can tell me who Pythagoras was?” she asked the class. This sounded interesting. Sherrie Thomson raised her hand:

“ math?” she asked.

“,” replied Miss Wallace.

Click here

“Where ?” I asked.
“In Greece,” replied Miss Wallace. “Pythagoras started a cult which about 300 members. They all lived on an island called Croton.”

“ this cult?” asked Jacob.

“Well,” answered Miss Wallace, “Pythagoras was born around 580 B.C. He probably ran the cult when he was an adult.”

Click here

“Didn’t the members of the cult Pythagoras was a god?” asked Sherrie.

“.”

“Who such a silly thing?” asked Jacob.

“All the members of the cult did.”

Click here

“ in?” was my next question.

“The Pythagoreans believed men and women were equals. The inner circle of the cult was not allowed to have any possessions. Also, they could not eat meat and always stayed within the school. The most important aspect of the cult was the secrecy which surrounded it.”

Click here

“Didn’t they use to share their theories with the other Greeks?” I asked.

“No, they didn’t. They were very selfish about the mathematical mysteries they discovered.”

“ so strange?” demanded Jacob.

“Don’t forget, they believed they knew the secrets of the whole Universe. They even that numbers were magical. They odd numbers male, and even numbers female.”

Click here

“What was the most important truth Pythagoras discovered?” asked Jacob.

“Well, we all know the Pythagorean theorem, which describes the mathematical relationship between the sides of a right triangle. The result of this theory was the discovery of irrational numbers. Mathematicians that all numbers could be written as fractions. However, Pythagoras discovered that some numbers cannot, such as the square root of 2, which is equal to 1.414214..."

Click here

“ Pythagoras so many different theories?” asked Sherrie.

“Some of the theories probably came from the members of his cult, and not from him,” replied the teacher. “And now, it’s time for the test.” With that, the whole class groaned, and we had to stop thinking about Pythagoras for a while.

Written by Caitlin Myles