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Leucippus and Democritus . By: Nicole and Manpreet . Leucippus. O ne of the earliest philosophers to develop atomism. N o specific dates for him, was born in the 5 th century in Andréa, Miletus or Elea. W as a very shadowy figure
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Leucippus and Democritus By: Nicole and Manpreet
Leucippus • One of the earliest philosophers to develop atomism. • No specific dates for him, was born in the 5th century in Andréa, Miletus or Elea. • Was a very shadowy figure • He had believed if you take a piece of wood and cut it eventually until you no longer could cut, the smallest piece would be the atom. • all matter is made up of indivisible particles and a atom cannot be cut. • He was the teacher of Democritus and they worked together often.
Democritus Leucippus
Democritus • Born in 460 BCE (according to most historians), lived until 370 BCE, died at the age of 90. • Born in Andréa – Northern Greece, somewhat of a disciple of Leucippus, always credits his mentor in his works. • Democritus had a wealthy father, used much of his inheritance to travel (Asia, India and Ethiopia) as well as living in Egypt for a while in search of knowledge. • Was often known as the “Laughing Philosopher” because he like to crack jokes at other’s expense.
Work • Hypotheses made by Leucippus and Democritus: • Matter is composed of atoms, atoms are separated by empty space • Atoms are solid, homogenous, indivisible and unchangeable • All apparent changes in matter result from changes of groupings of atoms • Different kinds of atoms all differ in shape and size • The properties of matter reflect properties of their atoms • The first hypothesis was the main work of Leucippus
Work cont. • Named the atom from the Greek word for “uncuttable” (atomos) • The idea that atoms are indivisible was accepted up until 1945 when the atom was split • Their work was not widely accepted in their time, especially by Aristotle who made completely different claims about atoms and matter. • These atomists were the first of their time and were overlooked for thousands of years even though they were more or less correct about atoms.
Biography • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucippus • http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leucippus/ • http://www.thebigview.com/greeks/democritus.html • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democritus • BC Science Chemistry 11 - textbook