Hover over the menu bar to pick a physics animation.
`("hypotenuse")^2=("base")^2+("altitude")^2`
This theorem is probably the most important in all of geometry. It was probably of great importance in building the pyramids.Alternately we can write:
`c^2=b^2+a^2`
where base and altitude refer to the two perpendicular sides of a right triangle (one with a 90 degree angle)It should be noted that in 3 or more dimensions the Pythagorean theorem takes the form
`l^2=deltax^2+deltay^2+deltaz^2+deltau^2+....`
where `l` is the distance between the starts and ends of connected segments `deltax` etc in the (`x,y,z,w,...`) coordinate system.