Early+Ideas+-+Liana+and+Bec+Marshall

Humans have been searching for answers to questions about matter for years, even before the scientific method.
 * The ancient Greek philosphers from around 600bc were the first people to offer theories about the nature of matter.
 * In about 450bc, Empedocles suggested that all matter was maade from 4 different elements; fire, air, water and earth.
 * Later, this view was opposed by Democritus who proposed what may be considered the "Atomic Theory of Matter". He reasoned that if a sample of matter was cut into smaller and smaller pieces, a point would eventually be reached at which the pieces could not be further sub-divided. At this point, the particles were indivisible. He named these very small particles "atoms". He believed that atoms were in constant motion, and they combined with others in various ways and they differed from each other only in shape and arrangement.
 * Aristotle then opposed Democritus, and insisted that matter was continuous and infinitely divisible. He supported Empedocles' four element theory.
 * The word 'atom' comes from the Greek word 'atomos', meaning 'unable to divide'.