Pythagoras and the Geometry of Gas

Sidewalk, Charleston, SC  © Doug Hickok

Pythagoras of Samos, the 6th century BCE Greek philosopher and mathematician, was a pretty clever fellow, even if he's the bane of the mathematically challenged. Pythagoras expanded Euclidean geometry, theorized on the transmigration of souls, and revolutionized thought on the mechanics of the universe. His genius beams across the ages. So it is not surprising that an employee from the Gas and Electric Company is apparently a practitioner of the Pythagorean System, a line of thinking which seeks to explain the geometric harmony of the heavenly spheres, as this scholarly diagram on a Charleston sidewalk so clearly demonstrates. Note the brilliant use of the term "gas" as a metaphor for swirling stars and planets. Observe with keen interest the position of the Sun and its neighboring planets, and their triangular relationship with one another. Simply amazing! Bravo gas person, Pythagoras would be proud!