2020/05/21 by Overduin, James, Henry, Richard Conn
#FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2005.10671
Pythagoras' theorem lies at the heart of physics as well as mathematics, yet its historical origins are obscure. We highlight a purely pictorial, gestalt-like proof that may have originated during the Zhou Dynasty. Generalizations of the Pythagorean theorem to three, four and more dimensions undergird fundamental laws including the energy-momentum relation of particle physics and the field equations of general relativity, and may hint at future unified theories. The "pre-mathematical" nature of this theorem lends support to the Eddingtonian view that "the stuff of the world is mind-stuff."