2 Early days

Chapter 2 Early days That's incredible! In 600BC, an ancient Greek scientist named Thales made a surprising discovery.

Thales found that if he took a piece of amber and rubbed it with cat fur, the amber could pull things closer to it. It could even pick up light objects such as hairs or seeds. The amber has an invisible pulling force. It's like magic!

The Greeks were amazed by the amber's power to pick up objects. They also found that, if they rubbed the amber a lot, they sometimes saw a little spark. Did you see that? Hey! It tickles!

Thales and his friends had discovered a kind of electricity, although they didn't realize that's what it was. Some even claimed that if amber had such amazing powers, it must have feelings. So, what's it like being a piece of amber?

Later, other scientists tried Thales' experiment with different substances. They found that diamonds could pick up small things too. Look what my diamond can do. Hah! Wait till I try my copper.

But copper and other metals wouldn't pick up anything at all, no matter how hard they were rubbed. Ho ho! Bah!