El atomic model of democritus It was the first hypothesis that introduced the notion that matter is made up of simple and indivisible elements, which were called atoms. Moreover, the word atom means indivisible.
Background of the Atomic Model of Democritus
Relevant scientists and theories like Dalton, the Bohr Atomic Model, Einstein and the Rutherford Atomic Model they were not the first to explain the atom. The very word atom was created by the Greek philosopher, called Leucippus of Miletus and his disciple Democritus, 450 years before Christ.
Leucippus and Democritus They were the originators of the notion of the atom. The group of Greek thinkers founded a current of thought known as Atomism, according to which all matter was composed of two elements, atoms and the void. Certainly, this model was purely philosophical in origin, without a physical basis, but it was a very good approach.
These Greek philosophers made an important contribution to modern science, treating for the first time the basic aspects of atomic theory. According to Atomic Theory of Democritus, the universe and everything around us is made up of atoms.
Democritus was a Greek thinker and philosopher whose life spanned between 460 BC and 370 BC. He is the founder of the theory of atomism and was a disciple of other Greek philosophers such as Leucippus and Anaxagoras.
Democritus reaches the conclusion of his atomic model after deep reflections. The narrations indicate that while Democritus was on a beach, he began to think that the grains of sand were the consequence of the fractionation of the rocks and that, despite their small size, they still had the characteristics of the rocks.
Then he asked himself the following question: if a grain of sand is divided, the result will be two grains of sand. If it is divided again, finer grains of sand will be obtained. But what if they could be further divided.
He then wondered if the process of subdividing could be continued indefinitely. As a result of these questions, he intuited that a point should be reached such that the grains of sand could not be further fragmented and the basic indivisible constituent that is the atom is reached.
Characteristics of the Atomic Model of Democritus
Democritus failed to realize that combinations of a few types of atoms were sufficient to account for all the diversity of existing matter. On the contrary, he thought that the atom of the grains of sand was proper to the sand.
He thought the same about wood and about any other substance or element. He believed that everyone had their own kind of atom. Democritus' conclusion was that the atom should be the smallest possible fraction of each element.
Another of his ideas was that the atom is solid and has no internal structure. If he thought that the atoms of the different elements could be different in size, shape, mass, but that each element had its own intrinsic characteristics of it. Finally, he deduced that among the set of atoms that make up any material or element, there is nothing but emptiness.
Of course, Democritus did not have the elements or the means of experimentation that would be needed to prove his claims. Nor were they within the reach of two of the most famous known Greek philosophers, Aristotle and Plato, who did not subscribe to these ideas related to the atom, but could not prove them wrong either.
However, the thought of Aristotle and Plato was oriented towards the theory of Empedocles, according to which there are only four basic elements: earth, air, water and fire and that these were the basic components of matter. In short, it is the infinite possibility of combinations of these four basic elements of matter that gave rise to all the diversity of matter. For this theory, the concept of the atom had no relevance.
The Atomic Model of Democritus: a long forgotten model
According to Aristotle, Democritus's atomism contradicted the notion of substance, in which the proportion of the known elements, earth, air, water and fire, should always be maintained, regardless of the tiny size. of fraction to be used of each. Aristotle considered that the substance was intrinsically continuous.
Due to the prestige and immense influence of Aristotle, Democritus' theory was discarded and forgotten. About two thousand years had to pass before the English scientist John Dalton rediscovered Democritus's ideas about the atom and reformulated his theory.
Plato probably had some personal conflict with Democritus, because he wanted all his works to be eliminated, no matter what philosophical arguments were against them. Later, other philosophers such as Epicurus and his disciple Lucretius, took up atomism, but with some variations.
In the year 1803, the English scientist John Dalton (1766-1844) returned to the ideas of the atom and the elements. He began by considering that there were several pure substances that were made up of elementary atoms. Thus, the explanation for all the diversity of existing matter is that there are different combinations of these atoms.
According to Dalton, a substance that is not elementary is made up of particles that happen to be the union of two or more elementary atoms. Therefore, these substances can be separated into the elemental substances that make it up. He came to affirm that the combinations of elementary atoms were unique for each substance, what is now known as molecules.
Contributions of Democritus
The way in which Democritus devised his model of the atom is very different from that used by the current scientific method. Democritus used rationalism, which was one of the philosophical currents of Ancient Greece, according to which the existence of things can be affirmed, even though they cannot be observed, only with the force of logical reasoning.
Even the rationalistic Greeks had no confidence in the senses, because they thought they were misleading, the basis of their thinking was exclusively entrusted to logic.
Democritus being a rationalist and radical, he concluded that everything, absolutely everything, was atoms and emptiness. This philosopher thought that the soul was also a composition of atoms and a lot of emptiness. Based on those thoughts, his postulates can be summarized as follows:
- Atoms are indivisible, indestructible and eternal.
- They can have movement and collide with each other, but never divide.
- The atom is the basis and justification of everything, there is no greater power, there is no greater purpose than the atom.
- The world and the universe only follow the laws of atoms, there is nothing else.
Atomism
The philosophical school of atomism had the idea that matter, due to its constituent elements, is eternal and indestructible, for that reason, the observable modifications through the senses are only superficial, since essentially everything is immutable and eternal.
If this is so, why is there hard and soft, sweet and bitter, cold and hot? The answer is found in the atoms, but taking into consideration that in each state of matter there are different movements or configurations.
The reason why water has no consistency is that its atoms are round and roll over each other and there is the option of chaining them together. In contrast, iron atoms are rough, have teeth, and have the ability to chain together and compact.
According to the atomism of Democritus, it is that the same eternal fractions of matter, solid and inseparable, due to their displacement, collide with each other and form conglomerates or separate or liquefy or evaporate. What they do is change their shape in appearance, but they are always the same and unbreakable atoms.
Other atomistic philosophers of antiquity
As we can see, the notion of the atom is not current, even though it is one of the most widely used techniques today. Knowing the origins of the notion allows us to observe the point of view of the great achievements of man.
Very little of Democritus' work could be recovered and it is an impossible task to know what part of Atomism corresponds to him and what part was created by his teacher Leucippus, which is why in many sources they are indicated as co-creators.
Although it has not been possible to find much documentation, it must be said that centuries ago there was another current that supported the theory of the atom and it was in India where the Vaisheshika school of thought and Jainism had atomic ideas, similar to those of Democritus.
In fact, a philosopher and physicist of that school, named Kanada, which is actually a nickname that translates as eater of atoms, also espoused ideas about the atom. Among them, he held the notions of indivisibility and eternity. He also indicated that the atom had at least twenty qualities and four basic types, which were enough to describe the entire universe.
After Democritus, the philosopher Epicurus of Samos (341-270 BC) also supported his belief in the atom in his own school of thought.