(December 17, 2008 at 3:13 pm)CoxRox Wrote: So it wouldn't be an atom any more?I heard the original definition of an atom back in ancient Greece by Democritus just meant the smallest possible thing. He called them atoms because the word atom is called that because it comes from the Greek word atomos which is Greek for indivisible So if strings exist in string theory would that mean they are by the original definition atoms, if they are the smallest possible thing?
Weren't the newer definition of atoms called atoms because it was thought that science would probably never find anything smaller or something? So atoms are atoms but the smallest things of all (smaller than atoms) are also atoms by the original definition?
I have been wondering what anyone here's opinion is on the clash between the original Greek definition of the 'atom' and how its defined today?
