jan 1, 430 BC - Democritus's discovery on the particulate nature of matter

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Democritus of Abdera, the disciple of Leucippius of Miletus, named the building blocks of matter atomos, meaning indivisible, around the year 430 BCE. Democritus believed that atoms were uniform, solid, hard, incompressible, and indestructible and moved in infinite numbers through empty space until they stopped. He also believed that differences in atomic shape and weight affected their properties. For example, he stated that sourness was caused by needle-shaped atoms, while the colour white was composed of smooth-surfaced atoms.

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