Should Pythagoras's theorem be renamed?

 As a preface to this topic I am Chinese myself and am aware (partially) of the history of mathematics in ancient China. 


I think knowing that mathematics is not just one person's contribution but rather discovery of principles that could happen independently is important. Being aware that mathematics could be and had been discovered across different continents in ancient times could change the view that mathematics is just some hoax or textbook problems that one has to grind through. They might feel more personally connected if they discover that lots of places contribute to mathematics and not just Europe and might find it more entertaining knowing the backstory of how these theorems are discovered.


Interestingly enough, it seems that in mathematics textbook written in Chinese, they actually refer to what we call Pythagoras's theorem as Gou-gu theorem like they mentioned in the paper. Perhaps we could put 2 people's name on it based on independent proofs found in historical text, but then one could always ask what about those that inspired them? Or those that did some work but never published it or have it fully complete? As for what name we should use, I think we should simply move away from naming things after people, even though that might be a great way to honour those before us that made great contribution. I think the trend in science discovery is to give names that somewhat describes the functionality or content of the subject instead. If I tell someone the name: Pythagoras's theorem, unless they have learned about it they would not have any idea on what it is about. It might be better to give it some descriptive name like the hypotenuse theorem or something of that fashion.

Comments

  1. I really like your idea of emphasizing the logical necessity of mathematical principles, and the fact that many of them have been discovered independently at different times and places! Good point too about naming theorems after famous mathematicians vs. naming them for their intrinsic features.

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