From what I remember, an atom was supposed to be the smallest possible indivisible unit of matter, Which being as that now we know that atoms are made of quarks shows that atoms have been improperly named.
Quarks seem to also be comprised of something else, possibly strings, possibly some sort of quantum something or another, so it’s entirely possible that we haven’t actually found the atom yet.
Democritus also thought they would be different shapes depending on the substance, like that metal atoms would have interlocking hooks, which was supposed to explain why it was so durable.
It’s funny that we tend to start with him. Like, here’s the first person who thought substance had an indivisible component. Imagine the smallest thing you can. Nothing gets smaller. Except forget that immediately, because yes it does.
From what I remember, an atom was supposed to be the smallest possible indivisible unit of matter, Which being as that now we know that atoms are made of quarks shows that atoms have been improperly named.
Quarks seem to also be comprised of something else, possibly strings, possibly some sort of quantum something or another, so it’s entirely possible that we haven’t actually found the atom yet.
Democritus also thought they would be different shapes depending on the substance, like that metal atoms would have interlocking hooks, which was supposed to explain why it was so durable.
It’s funny that we tend to start with him. Like, here’s the first person who thought substance had an indivisible component. Imagine the smallest thing you can. Nothing gets smaller. Except forget that immediately, because yes it does.
Different shapes would have been cool, but they’re all just made out of maths
Now there’s the Planck Length tho