| Introduction | | Ancient Greeks and Indians knew that matter could be cut up into small parts that were indivisible. Democritus in Greece and Maharshi Kanad in India were amongst the first to propound this view as early as in the fifth century B.C. They had concluded that all things material, were built up from five components or "elements" which were - earth, fire, water, air and sky. |  | | Smallest indivisible particles of the elements are known as atoms(atom is a Latin word "a" means not, "tomes" means indivisible). For thousands of years this view was not changed. !
Not until the end of the eighteenth century that scientists looked at the "elements" again. By then a few chemical reactions or processes (for example combustion) were well looked into. | | Previous | Next |
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