| A | B |
|---|
| The early Greeks argued about whether matter was continuous or discrete. Leucippus and his pupil, Democritus (circa 450 B.C.) insisted that the latter was the case. | Democritus gave the particles a name: "atoms", meaning "non-divisible". |
| Democritus even suggested that different substances were composed of different atoms or combinations of atoms and that one substance could be converted into another by rearranging the atoms. | This was an intelligent guess on his part - truly remarkable. Obvious now, but far from obvious then. Plato and Aristotle rejected the idea out of hand. |
| Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) prominent atomist. | x |
| Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655) atomists matter theory. His views impressed Boyle. | x |
