Question

Thales was a Greek mathematician, philosopher and a teacher of Pythagoras. He supposedly asked the Egyptian priests how tall the Great Pyramid of Cheops was and when they refused to tell him, he set out to solve the problem himself. One method that he is said to have used involved measuring shadows. Thales, who was $176 c m$ tall, measured his shadow to be $160 c m$ . At exactly the same time, he measured the shadow of the pyramid to be $13320 c m$ . Draw a diagram of this situation. Indicate the similar triangles and justify how you know that the triangles are similar.

Accepted Answer

Thales was a Greek mathematician, philosopher and a teacher of Pythagoras. He supposedly asked the Egyptian priest how tall the Great Pyramid of Cheops was and when they refused to tell him, he set out to solve the problem himself. One method that he is said to have used involved measuring shadows. Thales, who was $176 c m$ tall, measured his shadow to be $160 c m$ . At exactly the same time, he measured the shadow of the pyramid to be $13320 c m$ . Draw a diagram of this situation. Indicate the similar triangles and justify how you know that the t

Thales asked the Egyptian priests about the height of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, and they did not tell him, so he set about measuring it himself. His method initiated a powerful approach in geometry associated to the name of similar triangles.

One possibility is that he could have stuck a stick in the ground and waited for the moment in the day when the shadow of that stick was equal in length to the stick. At that precise time, the length of the pyramid’s shadow should be equal to the pyramid’s height.

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