Transcript Leucippus and Democritus

By: Nicole and Manpreet
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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.
Leucippus
Democritus
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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.
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Hypotheses made by Leucippus and Democritus:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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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
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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.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucippus
 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leucippus
/
 http://www.thebigview.com/greeks/democri
tus.html
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democritus
 BC Science Chemistry 11 - textbook