What Are Pythagorean Numbers?

Question: What Are Pythagorean Numbers?

Answer: The Pythagoreans believed that certain numbers had special properties. The numbers with these properties are called Pythagorean numbers.

1. Those numbers whose factors added together equal the number themselves were perfect numbers.

   6 is a perfect number because its factors (1 + 2 + 3) equal 6.

2. Amicable numbers were those numbers whose factors added up to one another's:

   220 (1 + 2 + 4 + 5 + 10 + 11 + 20 + 22 + 44 + 55 + 110 = 284)

   284 (1+ 2 + 4 + 71 + 142 = 220).

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica.

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