Greek Science

Aristotle s Meterologica synthesized his ideas on matter and chemistry. Aristotle believed that four qualities could be used to explain natural processes. The four qualities were hot, cold, dry, and moist. Hot and cold were active qualities. Hence, the addition or subtraction of heat leads to the transformation of things. Moist and dry were the result of the action of the active qualities. Only four possible combinations of these qualities could exist in substances. These were hot and moist, hot and dry, cold and moist, 

Using the four qualities of matter and four elements as a starting point, Aristotle developed logical explanations to explain numerous natural observations. Both the properties of matter and the changes in matter could be explained using Aristotle s theory. 

Aristotle explained the process of boiling as a combination of moisture and heat. If heat is added to a substance that contains moisture, the heat draws the moisture out. The process results in the substance dividing into two parts. When the moisture leaves, the substance becomes thicker, whereas the separated moisture is lighter and rises. Aristotle used this type of reasoning to explain numerous physical and chemical processes including evaporation, 

In closing this section, remember that Aristotle rejected the concept of atoms. Aristotle could not accept the idea of a void space and believed that nature abhors a vacuum. Furthermore, Aristotle did not consider internal structure. Substances contained their qualities and elements as a homogenous mixture. An Aristotelian would explain the reaction of hydrogen gas and oxygen gas to produce liquid water as 

This reaction shows how one basic element could convert directly to another. An entirely new element is produced from an original element using Aristotle s system. A modern chemist would write the reaction  

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Farrington, B. (1944). Greek Science, Harmondsworth Penguin Books. 

Clagett, M. Greek science in antiquity. Abelard-Schuman, 1957. 217p. 

Wilson, William Jerome. Relation of alchemy to other Greek sciences. Ciba Symposia 3, no. 5 (Aug 1941) 958-960. 

O Leary, De Lacy. How Greek science passed to the Arabs. London Routledge KeganPaul, 1948. 196p. 

The childhood of optics was in ancient religious Egypt. The first survived written relics of the optics originates from antique Greek science. Euclid was regarded as one of the founders of geometric optics because of his books on optics and catoptrics (catoptric light, reflected from a mirror). 

Cohen, M. E. and Drabkin, I. E. (1948), A Source Book in Greek Science, McGraw-Hill, New York, pp. 326- 334. 

Lloyd, G. E. R. Methods and Problems in Greek Science (Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1991). Reprinted with new introduction from Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, n.s., 10(1964), pp. 50—72. 

Greek science reached its highest peak in Euclid s century. Archimedes of Syracuse was the greatest scientist of the era, and he made advances in mechanics, hydrostatics, and mathematics. [Cited in M.I. Sobel, Light, p. 2, University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1987)]. 

Archimedes spent some time in the city of Alexandria in Egypt. In those days, the Alexandria was the center of Greek science. There were a lot of disciples of Euclid in Alexandria. Euclid was very active around 300 BC on whose name there is a branch of mathematics called Euclidean Geometry. The exact years of his birth and death are not known. Euclid had published a famous book on geometry called The Element. With the disciples of Euclid, Archimedes studied geometry. Archimedes was able to determine the area, volume and center of many important shapes (Assis 2010). 

Litter, M. I. (1999) Heterogeneous photocatalysis - transition metal ions in photocatal)rtic systems. Applied Catalysis B Environmental 23, 89-114 Liu, X., G. Mauersberger and D. MoUer (1997) The effects of cloud processes on the tropospheric photochemistry an improvement of the EURAD model with a coupled gaseous and aqueous chemical mechanism. Atmospheric Environment 19, 3119-3135 Livingstone, D. A. (1963) Chemical composition of rivers and lakes. In U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, 6 ed. (Ed. M. Fleischer), pp. 1 -64 Lloyd, G. E. R. (1970) Early Greek science Thales to Aristotle. W. W. Norton Co., New York, 156 pp. 

G. E. R. Lloyd, Early Greek Science Thales to Aristotle (Chatto Windus London, 1970). 

O Leary, D. L. (1949) How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs (1st ed.). London, Routledge Kegan Paul. 

A great intellectual reawakening began in western Europe in the 11th century. This occurred due to the cultural exchanges between Arab and Western scholars. Later, knowledge of Greek science was disseminated into Latin and ultimately reached all of Europe. Many of the manuscripts concerned alchemy. 

Price, D J D, Gears from the Greeks, Science History Publications, 1975. 

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