Atomic Pioneers ----- From Ancient Greece to the 19th Century

Chapter - 1 

PYTHAGORAS

 Pythagoras (Pith-ag-o-rus) was one of the first great mathematicians and scientists in man's recorded history. He was born about  B.C. on Samos, an Aegean Island. He died about 497 B. C. in Metapontum in Southern Italy.

Biographical Details 

While still young man, Pythagoras left his native island of Egypt, where he spent 22 years studying arithmetic and geometry. He then traveled to Babylon to spend 12 years studying arithmetic, music, and various other subjects.

 When he was 56 years old. he returned to Greece. There, at Croton, he established a school that soon became famous. His students were ardent disciplines and tool the name Pythagoreans.

 He was forced to leave Greece because, according to some sources, men were jealous of his popularity. He spent his last year in Southern Italy.  

Scientific Achievement 

Pythagoras contributed much to the developing sciences of geometry, astronomy, and even the science of sound and music. He is most famous for his Pythagorca theorem, which is well known to all geometry students. (The square of the length of the hypotenuse of  a right triangle is  equal to the sum of the squares of the length of its sides.)

Some earlies Greek philosophers believed that matter was composed of one element. Thales (Thay-leez) thought everything was water, Anaximenes (an'ak-sim'ih-neez) thought of matter was really air, and Heraclitus (her-uh-kly'tus) thought fire was the primary element.

Pythagoras rejected the idea of one element and held that matter was composed of four parts: earth, water, air, and fire. He felt that these four elements excited in various combinations which four qualities: hot and cold, wet, and dry.

Contribution to Atomic Science 

Pythagoras opposed the idea of atomicity but he stimulated Greek philosophers to give serious consideration to the nature of matter. Some later returned to the idea of one substance, the atom, They were called atomists.