The Pythagorean Theorem—discovered by the Greek mathematician Pythagoras in the 6th century BCE—is a cornerstone of mathematics. Simply stated as a 2 + b 2 = c 2, the theorem posits that the sum of ...

In 2022, two high school students created a trigonometric proof of the Pythagorean Theorem—something that’s only ever been accomplished by a few professional mathematicians. Now, a new article not ...

You’re standing at the edge of a cliff, phone in hand, trying to measure the distance to the opposite side – no tape measure, no drone, just your brain. Now what? Trigonometry just became your ...

Growing up, I hated trigonometry because I couldn’t understand what it was for. I got a decent grade in class, but only because I memorized the formulas. It was only much later that I appreciated how ...

This is an updated version of a story first published on May 5, 2024. For many high school students returning to class, it may seem like geometry and trigonometry were created by the Greeks as a form ...

Bill Whitaker is an award-winning journalist and 60 Minutes correspondent who has covered major news stories, domestically and across the globe, for more than four decades with CBS News. A high school ...

The ancient Babylonians – who lived from about 4,000BCE in what is now Iraq – had a long forgotten understanding of right-angled triangles that was much simpler and more accurate than the conventional ...