Hippasus of Metapontum, born circa 500 B.C. in Magna Graecia, was a Greek philosopher. He is the disciple of Pythagoras to whom is attributed the discovery of the existence of irrational numbers. He is also credited with the discovery that the square root of 2 is irrational. The discovery was made at sea and rumor has it that he was thrown overboard by fellow Pythagoreans, who did not want to believe this fundamental number could fail to be a ratio of integers.

He was also noted as an early experimenter in acoustics and resonance. Few of his original works now survive.

500 BC births | Year of death missing | Ancient Greeks | Pythagoreans | Ancient Greek physicists

Hipàs de Metapont | Hippasos | Hippase de Métaponte | Hippasos | Hippasos z Metapontu | Hippasos