Democritus knew that if a stone was divided in half, the two halves would have essentially the same properties as the whole.Therefore, he reasoned that if the stone were to be continually cut into smaller and smaller pieces then at some point, there would be a piece which would be so small as to be indivisible. One of the first atomic theorists was Democritus, a Greek philosopher who lived in the fifth century BC. In this lesson, we will review the development of the atomic theory. 1.Atomic Structure, Periodicity, and Matter: Development of the Atomic Theory In order to explain how starlight travels to Earth, Aristotle relied on a fifth element, besides fire, earth, air, and water, which fills space: the aether. Instead, Aristotle argued that perception occurs when light travels through a medium like air or water, and then reflects from objects and interacts with a sense organ associated with sight. Aristotle didn’t accept Empedocles’ theory of perception because he believed that if vision is caused by emissions from the eye, then objects should be visible in the dark. Aristotle popularised the idea that objects can be infinitely divisible, like waves, in about 360 BCE. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle disagreed with Zeno and the concept of atoms. He suggested that the more air an image passes through, the more distorted it becomes.ĭemocritus argued that our other senses work in a similar way taste, for example, is caused by the atom's shape, where bitterness is caused by jagged atoms that tear the tongue and sweetness by smooth atoms that easily roll over it. ĭemocritus thought that we see things because objects emit thin layers of atoms that are carried through the air until they reach our eyes. Democritus described atoms as indivisible objects and stated that everything in the universe could be made of atoms. The ancient Greek philosopher Leucippus and his student Democritus first considered the concept of the atom in about 430 BCE. The mathematics used to add up an infinite series was not derived until the 19th century. Zeno concluded that this should take an infinite amount of time and since we can cross distances in a finite time, space cannot be infinitely divisible. If a distance can be divided an infinite number of times, then crossing it would require crossing an infinite number of finite distances. We would then have to reach half of that distance, and so on. Zeno said that to cross a distance, we would first have to reach half the distance. Zeno’s Dichotomy suggests that if distances are infinitely divisible, then motion should be impossible. The ancient Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea considered whether objects could be infinitely divisible in about 470 BCE. Empedocles also believed that there are four elements: fire, earth, air, and water. The ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles, a follower of Pythagoras who was born five years before his death, suggested that something is also emitted from the objects we perceive and that we only see things when the two emissions meet. He thought that something was emitted from our eyes that illuminates our surroundings. Pythagoras also tried to explain how our vision works. He believed the paths of the seven ‘wandering stars’, composed of the five known planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn - and the Sun and Moon, follow the same pattern. Pythagoras thought that that mathematics is universal, and so he extended his theory of music to objects in space. The fundamental and the first six overtones of a vibrating string. Reflection, Refraction, and DiffractionĢ0.
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