The Scarecrow and the Pythagorean Theorem

by Ξ

Ray Bolger, who played the Scarecrow (THE Scarecrow) was born 106 years ago today. In his honor, here’s a clip from Youtube in which the Scarecrow gets a Doctorate of Thinkology and makes reference to the Pythagorean Theorem — sort of. (The exact words of the Scarecrow are, “The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side. Oh, joy, oh, rapture. I’ve got a brain!”)

Ray, here’s to you! And remember: 106²=56²+90².

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Tags: Pythagorean Theorem, Ray Bolger, The Wizard of Oz

This entry was posted on January 10, 2010 at 9:56 am and is filed under Math in Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “The Scarecrow and the Pythagorean Theorem”

TwoPi Says:
January 11, 2010 at 10:38 am | Reply
One of my favorite passages in Burger and Starbird’s “The Heart of Mathematics” involves the Scarecrow’s mangling of the Pythagorean Theorem — they note that it just goes to show the value of a mail-order diploma.
victor hugo Says:
January 9, 2011 at 10:14 pm | Reply
But they said that he was wrong.(?)
barron cunningham Says:
October 18, 2011 at 4:43 pm | Reply
he relly mesad it up/and he relly said it wrong