Shroedinger vs Democritus

Long, long ago in ancient Ionia, Greece what is now Turkey there was a man named Democritus. Democritus lived around 430 B.C.E. Back in Ionia many of the wealthy men were philosophisers, and they did many "thought experiments" In one of those many "thought experiments" Democritus decided that matter is made up of pieces, building blocks if you will, that are so small they cannot be cut up into smaller pieces.

The word atom meaning "one of the minute indivisible particles of which according to ancient materialism the universe is composed"* comes from the word atomos meaning uncutable. Democritus was on the right track (which is amazing because this was hundreds and hundreds of years ago) but he was still not entirely accurate. You see elements had not been recognized yet, so atoms were described by what they composed. (i.e. table atom, or tree atom.)

Now let's jump to the 1920s.

Not so long ago a man named Eric Shroedinger was praised by Albert Einstein,

"... the idea of your work springs from true genius... "

Now while that quote may have been aimed towards Shroedinger's work on quantum theory (not on the atom), it was in regard to one man: Eric Shroedinger. Born in the year of 1887 in Vienna, Austria Shroedinger loved mathematics early on.

Note: Eric Shroedinger hated homework, but later went on to win a Nobel Prize.

Shroedinger emphasized the need to focus on exactly where the electrons are located rather than prior examining on how electrons move. He worked with the term superpositioning meaning you can be in multiple places at once and have more than one state at once.

(By "you" I did not mean you as a person. I meant electrons: the extremely small, negatively charged particles that orbit an atom's nucleus. Though it would be totally awesome if you were able to be in multiple places at once!)

Under Shroedinger's use of the scientific method he changed the way we look at atoms today. He developed the brilliant atom model below via mathematics and the scientific method.

I give you a purple cotton candy model of an atom!!!

Shroedinger vs Democritus

The main difference between Scroedinger and Democritus's methods of discovery is the actual method behind each of their scientific practices. While Democritus could have sat in a comfortable armchair by the fire leisurely dreaming up particles that "could not be cut again" Shroedinger was slaving away at a chalkboard in a laboratory, doing mathematics calculations. This shows how far we have come as a scientific society, not to say that there is no imagination or leisurely thinking behind science, there is. But what I am trying to say is that we have set our standards higher, making us overall more accurate. By setting our standards higher we use and develop more modern ways of getting things done and thus our knowlage expands.

Below is the scientific method, the main difference between Shroedinger and Democritus's method. Shroedinger used it while it was long after Democritus's time.

*Taken from: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atom

Researched at site: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Schrodinger.html

Notes taken in Mr. Harrelson's science class at Spartanburg Day School.