Thales biography and contributions of mathematicians today

Thales remains one of the most distinguished of all figures in the history of mathematics. He is considered the true father of Greek math, science, and even philosophy. Considering the impact of Greek innovations in these disciplines, Thales may actually be considered the father of these disciplines for Greece and for the world in general.

Thales full name

Thales was born around BC. Due to the loss of records, there is very little known about him. It is known, however, that Thales had traveled early in life to Egypt and Babylon. During this tenure, he learned a great deal about astronomy and geometry. From his experiences, he was able to craft his own discoveries. One of those discoveries was deductive mathematics which helped shaped theories of logic and math.

He would soon develop the revolutionary concept called Thales Theorem which noted there are three points in a circle: A, B, and C. The diameter would be the line between points A and C. There were several other innovative theorems that Thales would be credited with discovering. Attributed to Thales would be the notion a circle can be bisected by its diameter and that in an isosceles triangle, the base angles are equal.

His work was not always great though. He did have the dubious distinction of noting the earth was disk shaped and not round and they it floating on an ocean. The ocean, incidentally, was infinite.