Atom , Greek view

Boyle s experiments offered a focus for the gathering numbers of atomists. As I said earlier, Lucretius s poem, introduced in a printed edition (see page 28), had brought Greek views on atomism to the attention of European scholars. A French philosopher, Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655), was a convinced atomist as a result, and his writings impressed Boyle, who thereupon also became an atomist. 

Aristotle s views on the nature of matter made so much sense to people that less obvious views were difficult to accept. One alternative view was the forerunner of our present-day model matter is composed of a finite number of incredibly small but discrete units we call atoms. This model was advanced by several Greek philosophers, including Democritus (460—370 B.c.), who coined the term atom from the Greek phrase a tomos, which means not cut or that which is indivisible. According to the atomic model of Democritus, the texmre, mass, and color of a material were a function of the texture, mass, and color of its atoms, as illustrated in Figure 3.2. So compelling was Aristotle s reputation, however, that the atomic model would not reappear for 2000 years. 

Although the Greek philosophers Democritus (460-370 Bc) and Epicurus (341-270 Bc) presented views of nature that included atoms, many hundreds of years passed before experimental studies could establish the quantitative relationships needed for a coherent atomic theory. In 1808, John Dalton published A New System of Chemical Philosophy in which he proposed that... 

The earliest known descriptions of atoms date back to between 460 and 370 B. C. E., when the Greek philosopher Democritus first proposed the idea that matter was composed of indivisible particles. He used the term atomos (indivisible) to describe these. Other philosophers, including Plato and Aristotle opposed Democritus s ideas, believing that matter was infinitely divisible—views that were widely held until the nineteenth century. 

At about this time it became possible to determine experimentally the masses of nuclei accurately and precisely. At last, after more than a century, John Dalton s view that all atoms of a given element were the same could finally be put to the test. It turned out to be, to collective surprise, a test that Dalton s speculation failed. The masses of the atoms of an element were found to have a spread of values. Because all these atoms, regardless of their mass, belonged to the same element, they were termed isotopes, from the Greek for equal place. Some elements, particularly the light ones, consisted of one or at most two or three isotopes, but the heavier elements in the southern part of the kingdom were often composed of up... 

Philosophers from the earliest times speculated about the nature of the fundamental stuff from which the world is made. Democritus (460-370 Bc) and other early Greek philosophers described the material world as made up of tiny indivisible particles they called atomos, meaning indivisible or uncuttable. Later, however, Plato and Aristotle formulated the notion that there can be no ultimately indivisible particles, and the atomic view of matter faded for many centuries during which Aristotelean philosophy dominated Western culture. 

There is a long history for us to recognize polymers. Let us start with the early evolution of our molecular views (Rupp 2005). As early as in the middle of 500 BC, the Greek philosopher Leucippus and his follower Democritus suggested that, an indivisible minimum substance called atoms constituted our world. Almost at the same time, Empedocles proposed that the world was formed by four elements, i.e., water, air, fire, and earth. Later on, Plato set up the Academy at Athens, inherited the atomic theory, and also advocated the four-element theory on the basis of the formal logic system of geometries. 

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