Pythagoras Theorem

Here is a lovely proof-without-words of this ancient theorem, as true today as ever it was. The right-angled triangle is yellow, the square on the hypotenuse is blue, and the squares on the other two sides are red.

             

This is just one of 99 proofs  of Pythagoras Theorem collected by Alexander Bogomolny for his wonderfully inventive and informative cut-the-knot column that appeared from 1996 until 2012 on the Mathematical Association of America website. 

Nominative Determinism

I believe the weekly magazine, New Scientist, may have coined the phrase "nominative determinism" in its light-hearted column at the back. I came across a lovely example of it last week, when my son Cameron and I went on a conducted tour of the the Jaguar production lines at Castle Bromwich in Birmingham.

Our amiable and very knowledgeable guide had worked in the car industry for most of his working life. He told us that his first job had been hanging doors on cars on an Austin production line, and at the end of the tour,  when I looked at his name label, it read: Austin Dawes. He assured us that it was not a joke.