Wrote many books including Little Cosmology a veritable encyclopedia.
Died in about 370 B.C.
His father was a very wealthy man.
Democritus expanded the atomic theory of leucippus. He also maintained the impossibility of dividing things ad infinitum.
He supposed the atoms to be impenetrable and have a density proportionate to their volume.
He believed that all motions are the result of active and passive affection.
Democritus drew a distinction between primary motion and its secondary effects, that is, impulse and reaction. This is the basis of the law of necessity, by which all things in nature are ruled.
Democritus' Atomic Theory: He hypothesized that all matter is composed of tiny indestructible units called atoms. The atoms themselves remain unchanged, but move about in space to combine in various ways to form all microscopic objects.
He also believed that atoms could be any shape and form.
The model below is not a perfect illustration of his belief of the atom. Because he believed that the atoms could be any shape or form, this is just one example. Other illustrations may display his atom as a square, rectangle, or any other shape.
Aristotle
was born in 384 B.C. in Stagirus, Greece on the Chalcidic peninsula of northern Greece.
Born to his parents Nicomachus, a medical doctor, and Phaestis.
Aristotle lost his parents when he was a boy and then he was raised by Proxenus.
When he was 18 years old he attented Plato's school in Athens, known as the Academy.
attended the Academy for 20 years.
Aristotle died in about 322 B.C.
Atomic Theory: Aristotle believed that form caused matter to move and defined motion as the process by which the potentiality of matter (the thing itself) became the actuality of form (motion itself).http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0856698.html
Although the idea of the atom, the smallest, indivisible component of matter, was first proposed in 400 BC, Aristotle didn't like it. He claimed that there was no smallest part of matter and that different substances were made up of proportions of fire, air, earth, and water. http://improbable.org/era/physics/atom.html
This is a model of what Aristotle thought were the elements of matter: fire, air, earth, and water. It was not correct, however it was used for over 2,000 years.
The Greeks This is the Greeks Atomic Model of water and iron.
this map shows the important towns [in red] of Greece during the time where the atom was developed.
"atom" comes from the Greek word "a-tomos" [meaning "indivisible"]
When the atom was discovered, Greek philosophy was approximately 150 years old.
Greek's atomic theory divides the world into atom and void.
Democritus, Aristotle, and the Greeks
Democritus
Aristotle
The Greeks
This is the Greeks Atomic Model of water and iron.
this map shows the important towns [in red] of Greece during the time where the atom was developed.