Lewis Carroll's Playful Math Discoveries

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Mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was known in the nineteenth century for his playful and imaginative approach to math. One day, while attending a geometry class, he became bored and began doodling in his notebook.

While he wrote, he began to create a series of linked squares with diagonal lines flowing through them. He then put numerals to each square, beginning with the number 1, moving on to the number 2, and so on.

Dodgson soon recognized he had discovered an intriguing mathematical pattern. He would end up with a grid of numbers that formed a perfect square if he kept drawing squares and added numbers to them.

Dodgson was thrilled about his discovery and immediately shared it with his friend and fellow mathematician, Augustus De Morgan. The pattern pleased De Morgan, who urged Dodgson to publish his results in a mathematical journal.

Dodgson was hesitant, however, as he didn't want to be taken too seriously as a mathematician. So instead, he decided to publish his findings in a humorous and whimsical way, using his pen name Lewis Carroll.

He wrote a short poem called "The Square of the Hypotenuse," which described the pattern he had discovered. The poem was published in a magazine for children, and became a popular nursery rhyme:

"The square of the hypotenuse Of a right-angled triangle Is equal to the sum of the squares Of the other two sides."

Today, Dodgson is best known for his children's book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," but his playful approach to math lives on in his clever and humorous mathematical discoveries.