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428 BCE
Plato
Solid forms of matter are composed of indivisible elements shaped like triangles. He believes triangles must be the correct form because they can join together to make very different kinds of shapes. -
400 BCE
Democritus
He believed atoms were uniform, solid, hard, incompressible, and indestructible and that they moved in infinite numbers through empty space until stopped. -
384 BCE
Aristotle
He didn’t believe in the atomic theory and thought that the stuff on earth wasn’t all made from atoms except for Earth, Air, Fire, and water. He thought that all substances were made from small amounts of all four elements of matter. -
701
The Alchemists
The alchemists believed that all metals were formed from two principles — mercury and sulfur.