Let's build up squares on the sides of a right triangle. Pythagoras' Theorem then claims that the sum of (the areas of) two small squares equals (the area of) the big one.
In algebraic terms, a2 + b2 = c2 where c is the hypotenuse while a and b are the legs of the triangle.
The theorem is of fundamental importance in the Euclidean Geometry where it serves as a basis for the definition of distance between two points. It's so basic and well known that, I believe, anyone who took geometry classes in high school couldn't fail to remember it long after other math notions got thoroughly forgotten.
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