MOST PEOPLE DON’T REMEMBER MATH CLASS, BUT THEY DO REMEMBER PYTHAGORAS. GREEK PHILOSOPHER AND MATHEMATICIAN, HE IS CREDITED WITH ONE OF THE HANDIEST FORMULAE ANY SCHOOL STUDENT COULD KNOW:

A squared plus B squared equals C squared equals all right-angle triangle mysteries solved.

Intoned so often as to be drilled into your memory for years after you leave the hallowed halls of learning, it is almost like a prayer or a spell.

Pythagoras would have loved that. As with most school lessons, the devil is in the details of what your teacher did not tell you about Pythagoras. When he wasn’t writing geometry proofs, he was a cult leader whose followers believed in reincarnation, loved animals, and despised beans.

Yet 2,512 years after Pythagoras was born, we still don’t quite know what he or the Pythagoreans believed. But there are some wild theories… Let’s dive in.