Thales of Miletus:

T oday in print class my lecturer was explaining something and used the name Thales. He must have seen the look on my face because he stopped what he was saying and asked me the question: " Have you not ever heard of Thales of Miletus?". I answered in an embarrassingly small voice; "No".  

You see I never had history at school and so am never really surprised that I do not know these things. It is only with the anguish and disbelief in my lecturer's voice that I realised this might just be a bad thing. Nonetheless my lecturer continues to tell me the story....

Thales was a very very clever man, now known as one of the pioneers of philosophy. It was one day in a pub that this ordinary man claimed that he could estimate the height of the Egyptian pyramids. Everyone looked at the man as if he was out of his mind- can you imagine someone today telling you that they can tell you exactly what will happen tomorrow? 

Although they did not believe him the people of Egypt and the kings of that time all gathered around the pyramid one day to here Thales out. By afternoon a large group had formed but there was no sign of Thales. "He will not be here as he has nothing to show us", they said. A while after noon Thales came walking up to the pyramid with a large group of followers at his side. 

"Why have you come at such an hour" exclaimed the king. "I said after noon" was Thales reply. Thales asked for a volunteer from the crowd and a young man stood before Thales. "Do you know your exact height" asked Thales and the man replied yes. "The height of your shadow is thus the measurement of your height as it is exactly one-o-clock". And with this Thales explained the simple concept of measuring the shadow of the pyramid that lay before them. The same pyramid that they walked past everyday.

Just by one person thinking out of the box a whole world of mathematics, physics and philosophy ensued. This little story changed the way people in the world thought. I decided today that not having history at school is NOT an excuse for me to not know what happened to get us where we are today. We need to reach out of our comfort zones, explore the world- fill our minds and make the world our oyster. So I guess I have a lot of reading to do.**