Hippasus of metapontum biography of martin

Hippasus of Metapontum (/ˈhɪpəsəs/; Greek: Ἵππασος ὁ Μεταποντῖνος, Híppasos; c.

Hippasus of metapontum biography of martin

530 – c. 450 BC)[1] was a Pythagorean philosopher.[2] Little is known about his life or his beliefs, but he is sometimes credited with the discovery of the existence of irrational numbers. The discovery of irrational numbers is said to have been shocking to the Pythagoreans, and Hippasus is supposed to have drowned at sea, apparently as a punishment from the gods for divulging this.

However, the few ancient sources which describe this story either do not mention Hippasus by name (e.g.

Hippasus of metapontum biography of martin luther

Pappus)[3] or alternatively tell that Hippasus drowned because he revealed how to construct a dodecahedron inside a sphere. The discovery of irrationality is not specifically ascribed to Hippasus by any ancient writer.

Life

Little is known about the life of Hippasus.

He may have lived in the late 5th century BC, about a century after the time of Pythagoras. Metapontum in Italy (Magna Graecia) is usually referred to as hi