ABSTRACT
The earliest references to the concept of atoms date back to ancient India in the sixth century BC. The Nyaya and Vaisheshika schools developed elaborate theories of how atoms combined into more complex objects (first in pairs, then trios of pairs). The references to atoms in Europe emerged a century later from Leucippus whose student, Democritus, systematically presented his views. Indeed, the word “atom” comes from the Greek word “uncuttable” coined by Democritus around 420 BC. He argued that if one started dividing some piece of matter repeatedly, then finally a piece would be obtained which could not be divided further. He called this smallest hypothetical piece an atom. In the eleventh century, the Asharite school of Arabic philosophers developed ideas about the atomic that represented a synthesis of both Greek and Indian atomism. They introduced new ideas, such as the possibility of there being particles smaller than an atom. Atoms were taken to be the only perpetual material entities and the world was taken to be contingent and lasting for only an instant.
