Hippasus of Metapontum c. 530 BC – c. 450 BC
Hippasus of Metapontum was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and Pythagorean of the early fifth century BC, traditionally credited or, in the less friendly versions of the story, blamed for the discovery that the diagonal of the unit square is incommensurable with its side. According to the legend that grew up around him, the Pythagorean brotherhood, scandalized by a result that broke their doctrine that all things are number understood as ratios of whole numbers, drowned him at sea, or saw him drowned by divine displeasure. His mathematical and acoustical investigations, including experiments with the ratios of musical intervals, mark an early step toward the rigorous investigation of nature by number.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Greek
- Era
- Ancient
- Movements
- Pre-Socratic, Ancient Greek
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Hippasus of Metapontum:
“The diagonal of the square is not commensurable with its side.”
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Attributed to Hippasus of Metapontum:
“All things are number, but not all numbers are whole.”
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Attributed to Hippasus of Metapontum:
“Music is the audible image of number.”
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Attributed to Hippasus of Metapontum:
“What cannot be expressed by ratios still belongs to nature.”
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Attributed to Hippasus of Metapontum:
“The cosmos hides depths that even mathematicians fear to face.”