How High Is It Or Thales revisited Thales
- Slides: 10
How High Is It? Or Thales revisited
Thales • Thales was a Greek mathematician around 600 B. C. He was one of the first mathematicians to use logic and reasoning to solve problems about the world around him.
• Click on slide to continue with Thales activity • Click on link below to learn about an interesting anecdote about Thales. • Thales Anecdote
Thales in Egypt • Thales was studying in Alexandria Egypt when he had a question. “How high is the pyramid? ” None of the locals were able to help him.
Thales solution • Thales hit upon an idea. What if he measures the length of the shadow of the pyramid. Then measure the length of his shadow and use his height to create a proportion
Application for today • Using the same idea that Thales had, students are able to determine the heighth of various objects.
Activity • Students are put in groups of 3 or 4. • Students are given a tape measure. • Students measure the height of one student in their group. (a stick could be used instead, but I like the added difficult of using a person’s height)Then they measure the shadow length of the same person. • Students then are given a list of objects in the area to measure the shadow length. (example: telephone pole, flagpole, smoke stack, etc.
How high is it? • Students then use the data collected and create a proportion. • Students then use the proportion to solve for the height of the object.
Student Height Student Shadow 67. 5 inches 133 inches = = Flagpole Height Flagpole Shadow x inches 735 inches Cross Multiply to solve for x 67. 5 * 735 = x * 133 49612. 5 = 133 x 133 Divide by 133 373. 026 inches = x or x = 31 Feet
