• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.155-165
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• 2020

Pythagorean theorem is a proposition on the relationship between the lengths of three sides of a right triangle. It is well known that Pythagorean theorem for Euclidean geometry deforms into an interesting form in non-Euclidean geometry. In this paper, we investigate a new perspective that replaces right triangles with 'proper triangles' so that Pythagorean theorem extends to non-Euclidean geometries without any modification. This is seen from the perspective that a rectangle is an equiangular quadrilateral, and a right triangle is a half of a rectangle. Surprisingly, a proper triangle (defined by Paolo Maraner), which is a half of an equiangular quadrilateral, satisfies Pythagorean theorem in many geometries, including hyperbolic geometry and spherical geometry.