Understanding Pythagorean Distance and the Gradient

[pokerfan]

Awesome post today from the Better Explained blog.

The Pythagorean Theorem is so versatile — it’s not about triangles, it covers the nature of distance. I seem to find some new realization when I study it. Really grokking it will help you everywhere, from geometry to vector calculus.

http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-pythagorean-distance-and-the-gradient

[dipsydoodle]

1. Why did he start with a straight line ?

which in theory occupies no area instead of a triangle which does ?

[pokerfan]

2. I thought he started with pizzas

and then moved onto tiling. :shrug:

[dipsydoodle]

3. The world's thinnest pizza

Infinately thin. :)

[pokerfan]

5. okay....

:shrug:

[johnd83]

4. It actually gets a lot weirder if you consider Hilbert spaces

The Pythagorean Theorem mostly works on Euclidean spaces. Talking about finances in Euclidean space isn't exactly valid. If you even look at distance on the surface of a sphere it gets different.