The Idea of the Atom(NIAS Lecture L1 - 2003)

Kumar, N (2003) The Idea of the Atom(NIAS Lecture L1 - 2003). Lecture. National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.

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Abstract: The physical idea of finite divisibility of matter, and possibly that of space and time itself, is very old, and seems traceable to an even older idea of the arithmetic discreteness vis-a-vis the geometric continuum. In this talk, of admittedly limited range and depth, I shall summarize the atomic theory that was developed over nearly five hundred years before the Christian era by the three great Greek philosophers, namely, Leucippus, his pupil democritus, and Epicurus, and the Roman philosopher-poet Lucretius, and by the great Indian thinker Kanada who founded the Vaiseshika School, ca. 6th century B.C.E. Their Atoms were indivisible, hard, solid(not hollow) particles of insensibly small sizes and weights, infinite in number, having various but finitely many shapes, moving incessantly every which way in the Void (vacuum), ever colliding, and occasionally compounding — thus giving the observed plurality of the sensible world.
Item Type: Monograph (Lecture)
Subjects: NIAS Resources > NIAS Lectures
Date Deposited: 23 Jan 2018 06:32
Last Modified: 17 Mar 2018 06:40
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    DOI: ISBN: 8187663464
    URI: http://eprints.nias.res.in/id/eprint/1394

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