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The Greeks History of the Atom

Explore the ancient Greek philosophers' ideas on the atom and its properties, from Democritus' concept of the atomos to Aristotle's addition of elemental qualities.

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The Greeks History of the Atom

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  1. Not the history of atom, but the idea of the atom In 400 B.C the Greeks tried to understand matter (chemicals) and broke them down into earth, wind, fire, and air. Democritus and Leucippus Greek philosophers ~ ~ The GreeksHistory of the Atom

  2. Greek Model “To understand the very large, we must understand the very small.” • Greek philosopher • Idea of ‘democracy’ • Idea of ‘atomos’ • Atomos = ‘indivisible’ • ‘Atom’ is derived • No experiments to support idea • Continuous vs. discontinuous theory of matter Democritus Democritus’s model of atom No protons, electrons, or neutrons Solid and INDESTRUCTABLE

  3. Democritus DEMOCRITUS (400 BC) – First Atomic Hypothesis • Atomos: Greek for “uncuttable”. Chop up a piece of matter until you reach the atomos. • Properties of atoms: • indestructible. • changeable, however, into different forms. • an infinite number of kinds so there are an infinite number of elements. • hard substances have rough, prickly atoms that stick together. • liquids have round, smooth atoms that slide over one another. • smell is caused by atoms interacting with the nose – rough atoms hurt. • sleep is caused by atoms escaping the brain. • death – too many escaped or didn’t return. • the heart is the center of anger. • the brain is the center of thought. • the liver is the seat of desire. “Nothing exists but atoms and space, all else is opinion”.

  4. FIRE Hot Dry ‘MATTER’ AIR EARTH Wet Cold WATER Four Element Theory • Plato was an atomist • Thought all matter was composed of 4 elements: • Earth (cool, heavy) • Water (wet) • Fire (hot) • Air (light) • Ether (close to heaven) Relation of the four elements and the four qualities Blend these “elements” in different proportions to get all substances

  5. Some Early Ideas on Matter • Anaxagoras(Greek, born 500 B.C.) • Suggested every substance had its own kind of “seeds” that clustered together to make the substance, much as our atoms cluster to make molecules. • Empedocles(Greek, born in Sicily, 490 B.C.) • Suggested there were only four basic seeds– earth, air, fire, and water. The elementary substances (atoms to us) combined in various ways to make everything. • Democritus(Thracian, born 470 B.C.) • Actually proposed the word atom (indivisible) because he believed that all matter consisted of such tiny units with voids between, an idea quite similar to our own beliefs. It was rejected by Aristotle and thus lost for 2000 years. • Aristotle(Greek, born 384 B.C.) • Added the idea of “qualities”– heat, cold, dryness, moisture – as basic elements which combined as shown in the diagram (previous page). • Hot + dry made fire; hot + wet made air, and so on. O’Connor Davis, MacNab, McClellan, CHEMISTRY Experiments and Principles1982, page 26,

  6. Early Ideas on Elements Robert Boyle stated... • A substance was an element unless it could be broken down to two or more simpler substances. • Air therefore could not be an element because it could be broken down in to many pure substances. Robert Boyle

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