Lesson 1 - Introduction To Pythagoras (Twinkl)
Lesson 1 - Introduction To Pythagoras (Twinkl)
Lesson 1 - Introduction To Pythagoras (Twinkl)
An Introduction to Pythagoras
Learning Objective
To demonstrate an understanding of Pythagoras’ theorem.
Success Criteria
• To identify what Pythagoras’ theorem is and recall some basic facts
about him.
• To use Pythagoras’ theorem to solve a real-world problem.
• To demonstrate Pythagoras’ theorem visually.
A Puzzling Beginning
Cut each
shape out and
fit them back
into the
square, like
a tangram.
Py…Who?
Pythagoras was a Greek mathematician
who was alive from c.580BC-c.500BC.
Very little is known about his life except that he
travelled a lot in his youth. He eventually settled
in Crotona in Southern Italy, where he started
teaching. He soon had a small circle of students
who lived a life of study which was inspired by
philosophy based around mathematics. This
circle of students became known as
‘Pythagoreans’.
field 1 field 3
How would you work out the area of each square field? Remember
that the four sides of the square will be the same as the length of the
farmyard side to which it is connected.
You should have found that the area of the large field was the
same as the sum of the area of the two smaller fields.
Your results may not have shown this exactly, depending on the
accuracy of your measurements, but they should have been close.
Tangrams
Draw any right-angled triangle. Drawing
on squared paper will make this easier.
×
Tangrams
You now need to draw a line which
passes through this centre point, is
parallel to the hypotenuse of the triangle
and is contained within the square. The
grid on the paper should help you line
this up.
It is also written as a2 + b2 = c2, where a and b are the lengths of the shorter sides
and c is the length of the longer side.
c
a
b
Plenary
Create a quick guide card about
Pythagoras to help you remember the
key points of this lesson.
Write three facts you learnt about
Pythagoras below the picture. Above
the picture, write down the one
formula you must remember.