Math as Muse

Pythagoras (570-495 BC?)
gets credit for both the
Pythagorean theorem and
the tetractys, shown here.

He didn't write, apparently,
leaving data for disciples to divulge
to audiences eager to be taught
the Truth they sought from someone
wiser than they thought that they
themselves might be. And yet
countless high school students find
it prudent to remember both his name
and number theorem which he
may not even've had a thing to do with.
I have no use for triangle's hypotenuse
most days, and on the rare occasion
when I try to find an area at all,
it's ordinarily a square, which Mr. P may also well
have been to be so into things like the cosmos and tetractys,
though I like to play the game myself
while waiting for my food at Cracker Barrel.


(c) Ellen Gillette, 2013

I subbed for high school math today. If they only knew how little I remember...