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💡 Big question
What is everything made up of? Thinkers in ancient India and Greece asked this more than 2,000 years ago — long before any experiment could check the answer.
Long ago, Acharya Kanada in India said that if you keep dividing matter ( dravya ) again and again, you finally reach the smallest particle that cannot be divided — a parmanu . In Greece, Leucippus and Democritus called such indivisible particles atomos (Greek for “indivisible”). At this stage the atom was only an imaginary idea , not something proven by experiment.
Who first proposed that matter is made of indivisible particles?
- Acharya Kanada (ancient India) — smallest particle called a parmanu .
- Democritus & Leucippus (ancient Greece) — called it atomos .
- These were imaginary ideas , not based on experiments.
What did Dalton propose about atoms?
Dalton's Atomic Theory
All matter is made of tiny indivisible particles called atoms, the building blocks of matter.
- In 1808 , John Dalton gave the first scientific atomic theory.
- All matter is made of tiny indivisible particles called atoms .
- Atoms are the fundamental building blocks that cannot be broken further (as believed then).
✅ Test Yourself
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Who called the smallest indivisible particles parmanus ?
Show Answer
Acharya Kanada, in the Sanskrit text Vaisesika Sutras . -
What does the Greek word atomos mean?
Show Answer
Indivisible — it cannot be cut any further. -
In which year did John Dalton propose his atomic theory?
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In 1808. It was the first theory based on scientific experiments. -
Was the early idea of the atom based on experiments?
Show Answer
No. It began as an imaginary, philosophical idea.
Important Definitions
- Atomos — indivisible particle (Greek); the Greek idea of the smallest particle of matter.
- Parmanu — the smallest particle that can no longer be divided, proposed by Acharya Kanada.
- Dalton's atomic theory — all matter is composed of indivisible particles called atoms, the fundamental building blocks of matter.
