35. A Math Murderer
Pythagoras was accused of murdering his most famous acolyte, Hippasus, a genius in his own right, in a dispute over math. Pythagoras’ math religion revolved around the belief that numbers could explain everything in life. Central to that was the belief that everything in the universe could be explained by rational numbers that could be expressed as fractions. Then Hippasus demonstrated the existence of irrational numbers.
For Pythagoras and his closest adherents, Hippasus’ irrational numbers were like a turd dropped into their punch bowl. Unfortunately for Hippasus, although a genius, he was not very smart. He demonstrated his irrational numbers while on a boat that contained only him, Pythagoras, and a bunch of other Pythagoreans. Pythagoras wrestled Hippasus to the side of the boat, and dunked his head underwater until his struggling student stopped breathing. He then tossed the corpse overboard, and warned his other followers to never mention what they had seen or heard.
