In Plato's Meno. Socrates asks, “Do you see, Meno, what advances he has made in his power of recollection? He did not know at first, and he does not know now, what is the side of a figure of eight feet: but then he thought that he knew, and answered confidently as if he knew, and had no difficulty; now he has a difficulty, and neither knows nor fancies that he knows.”
This moment of perplexity—realizing that the sides of a square with an area of 8 are not 3, even though squares with areas of 4 and 16 have side lengths of 2 and 4, respectively—highlights the non-linear relationship between area and side length. At first glance, one might assume a linear connection, but deeper reflection reveals otherwise.