By: Nicole and Manpreet

 One of the earliest philosophers to develop atomism.  No specific dates for him, was born in the 5 th 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.

LeucippusDemocritus

 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.

 Hypotheses made by Leucippus and Democritus: 1. Matter is composed of atoms, atoms are separated by empty space 2. Atoms are solid, homogenous, indivisible and unchangeable 3. All apparent changes in matter result from changes of groupings of atoms 4. Different kinds of atoms all differ in shape and size 5. The properties of matter reflect properties of their atoms  The first hypothesis was the main work of Leucippus

 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.

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