Leucippus

Leucippus

Born: about 480 BC in (possibly) Miletus, Asia Minor (now Turkey)
Died: about 420 BC

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Leucippus was the founder of the atomic theory and contributed to the method of exhaustion. He stated that atoms are imperceptible, individual particles that differ only in shape and position. The mixing of these particles gives rise to the world we experience.

Two works, almost certainly by Leucippus are The Great World System and On the Mind . Democritus, a pupil of Leucippus, developed his ideas.

References elsewhere in this archive:

Leucippus was one of the early mathematicians to investigate squaring the circle. The method of exhaustion was developed by Archimedes and led to an early determination of an approximation for pi.
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References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. W K C Guthrie, History of Greek Philosophy II (Cambridge, 1965). 
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JOC/EFR February 1996