What jobs use Pythagorean theorem?

This is what someone asked me recently.

Well, obviously you'd need to know Pythagorean theorem if your job includes triangles or rectangles in some way, for example in land surveying, or planning farmland, or designing buildings (architects) or designing furniture or frames for TVs, or making parts for machines (machinist) etc.

Remember the diagonal for a rectangle is calculated using Pythagorean theorem, and TV screen size is actually the length of the diagonal in inches.

See also my article on similar lines: Where do you need square roots or algebra - why study math?.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Tiger Woods has joked that he's needed the Pythagorean theorem when he has hit his golf ball way off line (one reference is at http://www.golfdigest.com/search/index.ssf?/features/gd200101tigershoes.html).

Theoretically you could use the theorem in this situation. From your ball (point 'c') you can walk off the distance at a right angle to the center of the fairway (point 'a'). You already know the distance from point 'a' to the green (point 'b'), so you can figure out the length of side 'bc' (the distance from your ball to the green) using the theorem.

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