Thales of Miletus

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Born: about 624 BC in Miletus, Asia Minor (now Turkey)
Died: about 546 BC in Miletos, Turkey

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Thales of Miletus was the first known Greek philosopher, scientist and mathematician.

None of his writing survives so it is difficult to determine his views and to be certain about his mathematical discoveries.

It is reported that he predicted an eclipse of the Sun in 585 BC.

He is credited with five theorems of elementary geometry.

(i) A circle is bisected by any diameter.
(ii) The base angles of an isosceles triangle are equal.
(iii) The angles between two intersecting straight lines are equal.
(iv) Two triangles are congruent if they have two angles and one side equal.
(v) An angle in a semicircle is a right angle.

Thales believed that the Earth floats on water and all things come to be from water.

Thales is believed to have been the teacher of Anaximander and he is the first natural philosopher in the Milesian School.

The bust shown above is in the Capitoline Museum in Rome, but is not contemporary with Thales.

References elsewhere in this archive:

Show me the result about angles subtended in a circle

Other Web sites:

Clarke University, USA

References:

1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
3. F Ueberweg, A History of Philosophy, from Thales to the Present Time (1972) (2 Volumes).
4. W K C Guthrie, The Greek Philosophers: From Thales to Aristotle (1975).
5. D R Dicks, Thales, Classical Quarterly 9 (1959), 294-309.
6. T L Heath, A History of Greek Mathematics I (Oxford, 1921).

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