Thales of Miletus was a Greek philosopher, mathematician and astronomer

who was born in 624BC. Thales lived in Miletus in Asia Minor, today Milet in Turkey. Thales was part of a
new generation of philosophers who

Began to use science and reason instead of mythology to explain the

World around them.

Thales made predictions and carried out experiments,

Making careful observations of the phenomena he

Was investigating. He had a particular interest in

What materials were made from so he carried out

Many tests to explore the properties of different

Materials and compare them.

In one of his experiments, Thales investigated amber

(fossilised tree sap) and discovered that if he rubbed

It with a piece of animal fur, the amber would attract

Lightweight objects such as feathers. In another

Experiment he noticed that lodestone (magnetic iron

Ore) attracted pieces of iron. Thales compared the

Similar way in which lodestone and amber behaved –

They could both attract other materials and objects.

He had in fact discovered magnetism and static

Electricity, but at the time he thought they were the

Same phenomena.

As all good scientists do, Thales thought carefully

About the observations he had made and began to

Draw conclusions and make predictions to explain the

Behaviour of the materials he had observed. Thales

Came to the conclusion that lodestone and amber

Must have a soul! At the time it was generally

Believed that any sort of movement was due to life,

Soul or the gods.

Thales must have written down his observations and

Ideas somewhere, although there are no examples of

His work to be found. Historians have managed to

Piece together the life and work of Thales because of

The many philosophers who followed him, and who

Discussed his ideas and the experiments he carried out.

The early Greek word for the Sun was ‘hlector’

(pronounced ‘elector’) and this was also used to

Describe the material amber because its colour

Reminded people of the Sun. In many ancient Greek

Writings that describe Thales’ work and ideas, amber is

Called ‘electron’, which would become the root of the

Word electricity that we use today.

Thales didn’t have the equipment needed to find out

More about these strange material behaviours and it

Would be over 2,000 years before anyone was able to

Learn more.

His most famous philosophical claim was that water is the basic principle of the universe. “Basic
principle” here is a translation of the Greek arche, which could be translated in several ways, including
“essence” and “source.” Thales likely identified water as the basic principle of the world because water is
capable of extreme changes and is involved in many (if not all) major physical processes. Thales had
gained a reputation for wisdom in ancient Greece. Importantly, his style of theorizing relied on natural
explanations of observable phenomena rather than explanations in terms of myth or of the gods’ wills.
Plato credited Thales with being one of the Greek Seven Sages, who contributed wise saying to the
Greek people, such as “know thyself.”

Several theories and discoveries have been attributed to Thales. For instance, it is claimed that he
believed that the earth floated on the water and that earthquakes arose when the waters became
violent. He further claimed that everything is full of gods, meaning that everything possesses a soul,
which is the source of motion. Finally, he is credited with having not merely observed but predicted an
eclipse. From his extensive observations of the sky, he is said to have established the shifting dates of the
solstices, as well as given an explanation of the seasons in terms of the sun’s course.

Thales discovered how to obtain the height of pyramids and all other similar objects, namely, by
measuring the shadow of the object at the time when a body and its shadow are equal in length. Thales
is said to have travelled in Egypt, and to have thence brought to the Greeks the science of geometry.

Thales was known for his introducting the theoretical and practical use of geometry to Greece, and is
often considered the first person in the western world to have applied deductive reasoning to geometry,
and by extension is often considered the West’s “first mathematician.”He also proved skilled in
arithmetic, and is credited with the West’s oldest definition of number: a “collection of units,” “following
the Egyptian view”.

The evidence for the primacy of Thales comes to us from a book by Proclus, who wrote a thousand years
after Thales. But is believed to have had a copy of Eudemus’s lost book History of Geometry.[i] Proclus
wrote “Thales was the first to go to Egypt and bring back to Greece this study.”He goes on to tell us that
in addition to applying the knowledge he gained in Egypt “He himself discovered many propositions and
disclosed the underlying principles of many others to his successors, in some case his method being
more general, in others more empirical.” In addition to Proclus, Hieronymus of Rhodes also cites Thales
as the first Greek mathematician.

Proclus attributed to Thales the discovery that a circle is bisected by its diameter, that the base angles of
an isosceles triangle are equal and that vertical angles are equal. According to one author, while visiting
Egypt, Thales observed that when the Egyptians drew two intersecting lines, they would measure the
vertical angles to make sure that they were equal. Thales concluded that one could prove that all vertical
angles are equal if one accepted some general notions such as: all straight angles are equal, equals
added to equals are equal, and equals subtracted from equals are equal.

There are two theorems named after Thales in elementary geometry, one known as Thales’s theorem
has to do with a triangle inscribed in a circle and having the circle’s diameter as one leg, the other
theorem being also called the intercept theorem and is equivalent to the theorem about ratios in similar
triangles.

Pamphila says that, having learnt geometry from the Egyptians, he [Thales] was the first to inscribe in a
circle a right-angled triangle, whereupon he sacrificed an ox.This is sometimes cited as history’s first
mathematical discovery. Due to the variations among testimonies, such as the story of the ox sacrifice
being accredited to Pythagoras upon discovery of the Pythagorean theorem rather than Thales, some
historians (such as D. R. Dicks) question whether such anecdotes have any historical worth whatsoever.
It is believed the Babylonians knew the theorem for special cases before Thales proved it. The theorem is
mentioned and proved as part of the 31st proposition in the third book of Euclid’s Elements.Dante’s
Paradiso refers to Thales’s theorem in the course of a speech.

The story is told in Diogenes Laërtius, Pliny the Elder, and Plutarch,[52][62] sourced from Hieronymus of
Rhodes, that when Thales visited Egypt,[22] he measured the height of the pyramids by their shadows at
the moment when his own shadow was equal to his height.[j] According to Plutarch, it pleased the
pharoah Amasis. More practically, Thales had the ability to measure the distances of ships at sea.

These stories illustrate Thales’s familiarity with the intercept theorem, and for this reason the 26 th
proposition in the first book of Euclid’s Elements was attributed to Thales.They also indicate that he was
familiar with the Egyptian seked, or seqed, the ratio of the run to the rise of a slope
(cotangent).According to Kirk & Raven, all you need for this feat is three straight sticks pinned at one end
and knowledge of your altitude. One stick goes vertically into the ground. A second is made level. With
the third you sight the ship and calculate the seked from the height of the stick and its distance from the
point of insertion to the line of sight.

Thales was also a noted astronomer credited in antiquity with describing the position of Ursa Minor, and
he thought the constellation might be useful as a guide for navigation at sea. He calculated the duration
of the year and the timings of the equinoxes and solstices. He is additionally attribute with calculating
the position of the Pleiades. 7]Plutarch indicates that in his day (c. AD 100) there was an extant work, the
Astronomy, composed in verse and attributed to Thales.[67] While some say he left no writings, others
say that he wrote On the Solstice and On the Equinox. The Nautical Star-guide has also been attributed
to him, but this was disputed even in ancient times.[7][l] No writing attributed to him has survived.
Lobon of Argus asserted that the writings of Thales amounted to two hundred lines.

Thales thought the Earth must be a flat disk or mound of land and dirt which is floating in an expanse of
water.[69] Heraclitus Homericus states that Thales drew his conclusion from seeing moist substance turn
into air, slime and earth. It seems likely that Thales viewed the land as coming from the water on which it
floated and the oceans that surround it, perhaps inspired by observing silt deposits.

He thought the stars were balls of dirt on fire.[71] He seemed to correctly gather that the moon reflects
the Sun’s light.[72] A crater on the Moon is named in his honor.

Rather than assuming that earthquakes were the result of supernatural whims, Thales explained them
by theorizing that the Earth floats on water and that earthquakes occur when the Earth is rocked by
waves.[73][40] He is attributed with the first observation of the Hyades, supposed by the ancients to
indicate the approach of rain when they rose with the Sun.[74] According to Seneca, Thales explained
the flooding of the Nile as due to the river being beaten back by the etesian wind.

A story, with different versions, recounts how Thales achieved riches from an olive harvest by prediction
of the weather. In one version, he bought all the olive presses in Miletus after predicting the weather
and a good harvest for a particular year. Another version of the story has Aristotle explain that Thales
had reserved presses in advance, at a discount, and could rent them out at a high price when demand
peaked, following his prediction of a particularly good harvest. This first version of the story would
constitute the first historically known creation and use of futures, whereas the second version would be
the first historically known creation and use of options.[76]
Aristotle explains that Thales’s objective in doing this was not to enrich himself but to prove to his fellow
Milesians that philosophy could be useful, contrary to what they thought,[77] or alternatively, Thales had
made his foray into enterprise because of a personal challenge put to him by an individual who had
asked why, if Thales was an intelligent famous philosopher, he had yet to attain wealth.

As mentioned above, according to Herodotus, Thales predicted a solar eclipse in 585 BC.[4] Only the
eclipse of May 28, 585 BC matches the conditions of visibility necessary to explain it. American writer
Isaac Asimov described this battle as the earliest historical event whose date is known with precision to
the day, and called the prediction “the birth of science”. As well as first mathematician and first
philosopher, Thales is often given the label of the first western scientist and the “father of science”.

The claim that Thales was the founder of European philosophy rests primarily on Aristotle (384–322
BCE), who wrote that Thales was the first to suggest a single material substratum for the universe—
namely, water, or moisture. According to Aristotle, Thales also held that “all things are full of gods” and
that magnetic objects possess souls by virtue of their capacity to move iron—soul being that which in
the Greek view distinguishes living from nonliving things, and motion and change (or the capacity to
move or change other things) being characteristic of living things.

Thales’ significance lies less in his choice of water as the essential substance than in his attempt to
explain nature by the simplification of phenomena and in his search for causes within nature itself rather
than in the caprices of anthropomorphic gods. Like his successors the philosophers Anaximander (610–
546/545 BCE) and Anaximenes of Miletus (flourished c. 545 BCE), Thales is important in bridging the
worlds of myth and reason.