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Proving the Pythagorean Theorem by Cutting Squares — a² + b² = c²
Mark

བཟོས་མཁན

Mark

2. སྤྱི་ཟླ་བདུན་པ 2026FI
༡༣

Proving the Pythagorean Theorem by Cutting Squares — a² + b² = c²

The most famous rule in geometry says that in any right-angled triangle, the square built on the longest side equals the two squares on the shorter sides added together: a² + b² = c². The school of Pythagoras proved it around 530 BC. This blueprint proves it the maker's way — with a knotted cord, three cut squares, and a dissection you can hold in your hands. Seeing the pieces of the two small squares fit exactly into the big one is a proof that needs no algebra, and it doubles as the ancient builder's test for a true square corner.
འགོ་བཙུགས
2

ལམ་སྟོན

1

State the theorem

In a right-angled triangle, name the two short sides a and b and the longest side (the hypotenuse) c. The theorem says the square on c has exactly the same area as the squares on a and b together: a² + b² = c². You will prove this by area, not algebra.
2

Make a right angle with a cord

Knot a loop of cord into twelve equal spaces. Peg it out as a triangle with sides of 3, 4 and 5 spaces; the corner between the 3 and 4 sides is a perfect right angle. This 3-4-5 trick is how builders have squared corners for thousands of years.

ལག་ཆས་དགོས་མཁོ:

Cotton Kitchen StringCotton Kitchen String
3

Lay out a right triangle

Using that right angle, mark a right triangle with legs 3 and 4 units on a board. Its hypotenuse comes out to exactly 5 units — a whole-number right triangle to make the areas easy to count.

གོམ་པ་འདིའི་རྫས་རིགས:

Red Alder BoardRed Alder Board1 piece

ལག་ཆས་དགོས་མཁོ:

Chalk LineChalk Line
4

Cut the three squares

Cut a square on each side of the triangle: 3×3, 4×4 and 5×5. Rule each into unit squares — 9, 16 and 25 of them. These three squares are the whole proof, made physical.

ལག་ཆས་དགོས་མཁོ:

Hand SawHand Saw
KnifeKnife
5

Count the areas

Count: the small squares hold 9 and 16 unit squares, together 25 — exactly the number in the big square on the hypotenuse. 9 + 16 = 25 is a² + b² = c² in plain counting.
6

Prove it by dissection

Now cut the two smaller squares into pieces and lay them inside the largest square. They tile it exactly — no gaps, no overlaps. Because the pieces fit for reasons of shape, not luck, this works for every right triangle, not only 3-4-5.

ལག་ཆས་དགོས་མཁོ:

KnifeKnife
7

Test other triangles

Repeat with other right triangles: the square on the hypotenuse always equals the sum of the other two. Change the corner so it is no longer a right angle, and the fit fails — which is exactly why the same rule can TEST whether a corner is truly square.
8

See why it matters

This single relationship underlies distance, surveying, navigation and building ever since. Any time you find a straight-line distance from two measurements at right angles, you are using Pythagoras — a 2,500-year-old proof you just held in your hands.

རྫས་རིགས

1

ལག་ཆས་དགོས་མཁོ

4

You can swap these in

Can't get one of the materials? Swap it for an equivalent — these work just as well.

འབྲེལ་ཡོད་བིལུ་པིརིན་ཊི

བིལུ་པིརིན་ཊི་འདི་ཚུ་ཐབས་ལམ་དང་རྫས་རིགས། སྤྱི་ཆོས་བགོ་བཤའ་བྱེད

CC0 སྤྱི་དབང

བིལུ་པིརིན་ཊི་འདི་CC0 འོག་བཀྲམས་ཡོད། ཁྱེད་རང་གིས་ཆོག་མཆན་མ་བཞེས་པར་ཕབ་ལེན་དང་བཟོ་བཅོས། བགོ་བཤའ། དགོས་མཁོ་གང་ལའང་བཀོལ་སྤྱོད་བྱས་ཆོག

བཟོ་མཁན་ལ་རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་བྱེད་པའི་ཆེད་ཁོང་ཚོའི་བིལུ་པིརིན་ཊི་བརྒྱུད་ཐོན་སྐྱེད་ཉོ། བཟོ་མཁན་གྱིས བཟོ་མཁན་གྱི་ཁེ་ཕོགས ཚོང་པས་གཏན་འཁེལ་བྱས་པ། ཡང་ན་བིལུ་པིརིན་ཊི་འདིའི་པར་གསར་བཟོས་ཏེ་ཁྱེད་རང་གི་བིལུ་པིརིན་ཊི་ནང་མཐུད་སྦྲེལ་བྱས་ཏེ་ཡོང་སྒོ་བགོ་བཤའ་བྱེད།

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