Thales mathematician biography index

Because of the vast timescale, specific details of just where or when Thales was born are sketchy. Some ancient sources name his parents as Examyes and Cleobuline. It is possible and likely that his family was of the higher class, and perhaps even wealthy merchants. Some have traced the family of Thales back to an important Phoenician prince. It must be acknowledged, however, that it is possible that Thales was born in Athens and later migrated to Miletus.

In the course of it the Medes gained many victories over the Lydians, and the Lydians also gained many victories over the Medes. Among their other battles there was one night engagement. As, however, the balance had not inclined in favour of either nation, another combat took place in the sixth year, in the course of which, just as the battle was growing warm, day was on a sudden changed into night.

This event had been foretold by Thales, the Milesian, who forewarned the Ionians of it, fixing for it the very year in which it actually took place. The Medes and Lydians, when they observed the change, ceased fighting, and were alike anxious to have terms of peace agreed on. Dicks joins other historians F. Martini, J. Dreyer, O. Neugebauer in rejecting the historicity of the eclipse story.

He was stopped by the river Halys , then unbridged. Thales then got the army across the river by digging a diversion upstream so as to reduce the flow, making it possible to cross the river. The reasoning for such hylozoism or organicism seems to be if something moved, then it was alive, and if it was alive, then it must have a soul. For evidence, he points to the fact that hydor meant specifically "fresh water", and also that Acheloios was seen as a shape-shifter in myth and art, so able to become anything.

He also points out that the rivers of the world were seen as the " sinews of Acheloios" in antiquity, and this multiplicity of deities is reflected in Thales's idea that "all things are full of gods. However, due to the scarcity of sources concerning Thales and the discrepancies between the accounts given in the sources that have survived, there is a scholarly debate over the extent of the influence Thales had and on which of the Greek philosophers and mathematicians that came after him.

They have been dubbed the Milesian school. According to the Suda, Thales had been the "teacher and kinsman" of Anaximander. And it will be found that the hypothesis, if it is to be called by that name, of a regular organisation of scientific activity will alone explain all the facts. The development of doctrine in the hands of Thales, Anaximander , and Anaximenes , for instance, can only be understood as the elaboration of a single idea in a school with a continuous tradition.

As two of the first Greek mathematicians, Thales is also considered an influence on Pythagoras. According to Iamblichus, Pythagoras "had benefited by the instruction of Thales in many respects, but his greatest lesson had been to learn the value of saving time. Thales was also considered the teacher of the astronomer Mandrolytus of Priene.

Thales mathematician biography index

This story has to be rejected if one is to believe that Thales was a native of Miletus, and other typical things about him like his prediction of the eclipse. The Roman poet Juvenal quotes the phrase in Greek and states that the precept descended e caelo from heaven. However, although there is much evidence to suggest that Thales made some fundamental contributions to geometry, it is easy to interpret his contributions in the light of our own knowledge, thereby believing that Thales had a fuller appreciation of geometry than he could possibly have achieved.

In many textbooks on the history of mathematics Thales is credited with five theorems of elementary geometry:- A circle is bisected by any diameter. The base angles of an isosceles triangle are equal. The angles between two intersecting straight lines are equal. Two triangles are congruent if they have two angles and one side equal. An angle in a semicircle is a right angle.

What is the basis for these claims? Proclus , writing around AD, is the basis for the first four of these claims, in the third and fourth cases quoting the work History of Geometry by Eudemus of Rhodes , who was a pupil of Aristotle , as his source. The History of Geometry by Eudemus is now lost but there is no reason to doubt Proclus. The fifth theorem is believed to be due to Thales because of a passage from Diogenes Laertius book Lives of eminent philosophers written in the second century AD [ 6 ]:- Pamphile says that Thales, who learnt geometry from the Egyptians, was the first to describe on a circle a triangle which shall be right-angled, and that he sacrificed an ox on the strength of the discovery.

Others, however, including Apollodorus the calculator, say that it was Pythagoras. A deeper examination of the sources, however, shows that, even if they are accurate, we may be crediting Thales with too much. For example Proclus uses a word meaning something closer to 'similar' rather than 'equal- in describing ii. It is quite likely that Thales did not even have a way of measuring angles so 'equal- angles would have not been a concept he would have understood precisely.

He may have claimed no more than "The base angles of an isosceles triangle look similar". The theorem iv was attributed to Thales by Eudemus for less than completely convincing reasons. Proclus writes see [ 8 ] :- [Eudemus] says that the method by which Thales showed how to find the distances of ships from the shore necessarily involves the use of this theorem.

Heath in [ 8 ] gives three different methods which Thales might have used to calculate the distance to a ship at sea. The method which he thinks it most likely that Thales used was to have an instrument consisting of two sticks nailed into a cross so that they could be rotated about the nail. An observer then went to the top of a tower, positioned one stick vertically using say a plumb line and then rotating the second stick about the nail until it points at the ship.

Early Life and Education Thales was born into a noble family and received a good education in his hometown. However, his Miletian origin is disputed, as some sources suggest that his family had Phoenician roots and he was an immigrant in Miletus. This is indicated by Herodotus, the oldest source of information about Thales' life and work.

It is reported that Thales was a merchant and traveled extensively. He spent some time in Egypt, in the cities of Thebes and Memphis, where he studied under the priests, investigated the causes of floods, and demonstrated a method for measuring the height of pyramids. It is believed that he brought geometry from Egypt and introduced it to the Greeks.

His activities attracted followers and students, who formed the Miletian Ionian school, with Anaximander and Anaximenes being the most famous among them.