Pythagoras

Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher-mathematician who was born on an island in the Aegean Sea and lived in Greece in the 6th century B.C., is credited with various discoveries in music, medicine and astronomy, the most famous being the theorem that is named after him, the Pythagorean Theorem, which states simply the that square of the hypotenuse (long side) of a right (square) triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the two legs of the triangle. It has been said that Pythagoras came upon this idea while twisting his squirrely white beard and staring at the square tiles on the floor of the Sistine Chapel on a bright Sunday afternoon, while two buddies, Patheticus and Polymorphous, stood by cracking sick jokes about pathetic-looking philosophers with squirrely white beards. (You know how friends can be.)

Okay, I admit it, I have embellished a little bit here. I have no idea if Patheticus and Polymorphous ever lived, or if Pythagoras even had any friends. I also cannot vouch for the correctness of this story at all. I did, however, hear it said once. The one thing that I can be sure of is that, aside from the statement about Pythagoras' two friends standing by, there is one detail in the above story that is definitely incorrect. Can you tell what it is?

Answer:

The Sistine Chapel is a Christian structure, built in the 15th century A.D. Pythagoras, as stated, lived in the 6th century before Christ. He could not possibly have set foot in the Sistine Chapel unless he lived for 21 centuries, beating Methuselah by a very long shot! (And, okay, I have no idea if Pythagoras had a squirrely white beard either, but he might have!)