Period+4+Democritus+and+Aristotle

media type="custom" key="2374559" He was a Greek philosopher born at Abdera in Thrace 460 BC- 370 BC. His theory of the atom suggested that the characteristics of an object were determined by the shape of the Atom. For example [|[1]] sweet things are made out of smooth atoms while bitter things are made out of sharp atoms. “ Democritus agreed that everything which is must be eternal, but denied that "the void" can be equated with nothing.” [|[2]]   **What other sorts of philosophies did he study?| ** Some the philosophies that he studied were mathematics such as geometrics, Tangencies, Mapping, and Irrationals; along with minerals and plants in which he extracted the essence of herbs. He also studied astronomy; he even may have been the first one to propose that the universe contains many worlds.  **How did Democritus and Aristotle agree/disagree on their theories of the atom? ** Aristotle, (384-322 B.C.) who was a greek philosopher a student of Plato and a teacher of Alexender the Great believed that one could divide up a piece of matter an infinite number of times, that is, one never came up with a piece of matter that could not be further divided. He suggested that everything in the world was made up of some combination of four elements: earth, fire, water, and air. The elements were acted upon by the two forces of gravity and levity. On the other hand Democritus believed in the existence of an 'elementary particle', which he called the 'atom'. These atoms were indivisible, the smallest particle possible. He suggested that there were many different types of unchangeable atoms, each with its own shape and size, in constant motion. Matter, therefore, was made up of large numbers of different types of atoms.  **Aristotle wrote quite extensively on physics, along with many other subjects. What work in ** **physics is he most credited for? **  Aristotle is generally credited with providing the most comprehensive ideas of how matter existed. He believed that there were four earthly elements: earth, water, air and fire. Each had its natural place determined by its weight. Earth, being the heaviest, "wanted" to be at the centre of the universe. Water was above the earth, with air above water, and then fire. This order makes intuitive sense. Solid ("earthy") bodies sink in water; if you release air under water the air bubbles to the surface; and flames leap upward during burning. (Wood could float even though it was a solid body, because it contained both earth and fire; the fire was released on burning.) The farther a body was from the earth, the more perfect it became. Hence the moon was the least perfect of the heavenly bodies, as could be seen by its uneven appearance, while the fixed stars were the most perfect of all, and were composed of a fifth element (the "quintessence") which had no weight at all. In Aristotle's theories of physics, a moving body of any mass had to be in contact with a "mover", something which caused its motion, or it would stop. This mover could either be internal as for animals, or external as in the case of a bowstring pushing on an arrow. The arrow was kept in flight by air displaced from the front rushing to the back to fill the vacuum left by the arrow. Since Aristotle said that a vacuum was impossible ("nature abhors a vacuum"), this explanation of an arrow's motion was again internally consistent. However, because the stars were without mass, once they were put in motion by a "prime mover" they could continue to move by themselves.
 * //Who was Democritus, what did his theories on the atom entail? //**

Both Aristotle and Democritis believed that atoms had smaller parts that make up the atoms, which later came to be called subatomic particles.
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">How did the works of Aristotle and Democritis help to shape the modern atomic theory? **

[|[1]] http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast123/lectures/lec04.html [|[2]] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democritus#Atoms_and_the_void