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Pythagoras was a 6th Century BCE philosopher and mathematician who is famous for proving the classic right triangle relationship a2 + b2 = c2, where a and b are the lengths of the legs and c is the length of the hypotenuse. Sets of (a,b,c) where all three lengths are integers are called Pythagorean Triples. In the study of the Pythagorean Theorem, students become familiar with the smaller Pythagorean Triples, such as (3,4,5) and (5,12,13). This Java applet generates relatively prime Pythagorean Triples (triples with no common factor other than 1) of increasing value. Written by Nicholas Exner. |