Читать книгу 2,637 Years of Physics from Thales of Miletos to the Modern Era - Sheldon Cohen - Страница 5

He is one of the first to attempt an evaluation about the above mentioned theory. He is recognized as the founder of ancient Greek philosophy and physics, Thales suggested that water was the most fundamental structure that led to all other things. His reasoning: the ability of water to become vapor and exhibit motion. According to the Greeks, this capacity for change and motion indicated life. Thales felt that our universe was a living organism directed by water as the primary substance.

As mentioned before Thales, explanations for any natural phenomena had always relied on mythology, an aspect of religion. Thales contribution to the advancement of human intellect was a first step in the evolution of thinking from myth to reason.

Thales became fascinated by the force of attraction between bodies and made a serious study of this phenomenon. Even primitive man undoubtedly recognized this attractive force, but no one ever studied the phenomenon with the intent of understanding what such attraction meant until Thales.

Miletos, on the Aegean Sea in an area that is now Turkey, was near a town known as Magnesia. Magnesia had abundant deposits of lodestone, a naturally occurring type of iron ore well known to attract iron but no other substance. Someone named this attractive force magnetism and a substance that had this property became a “magnet.” Thales appreciated this phenomenon and became fascinated, thus embarking upon a serious study in an attempt to understand what it meant.

As part of this study, Thales discovered that rubbing amber with cat fur caused the amber to attract light objects like feathers or straw in a manner similar to the iron ore. Clearly, this represented a mysterious attractive force, and the Greeks therefore believed that the amber had a ‘soul.’ They considered this force different from magnetism that only involved iron, because many substances also had the ability to attract other objects when rubbed. Why? The answer would be a long time coming as it would remain a mystery for 2500 years. This would prove to be a major scientific discovery from which great advances evolved; for this attractive force would, centuries later, come to be known as static electricity. Ancient man was good at discerning, but did not have the basis to explain what it was exactly that they had discerned.

Thales was forever steeped in study. Plato tells the story about Thales once falling into a well while focusing his attention on the stars above. A servant girl, who pulled him out, stated that he was so eager to know the stars that he paid no attention to what was under his feet. They wrote on his tomb: Here in a narrow tomb great Thales lies; yet his renown for wisdom reached the skies.

We will jump to three centuries later when another Greek philosopher,