Aristotle (322 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and scientist born in the Macedonian city of Stagirus.
He had many good ideas about science but his ideas about atomic theory were not and unfortunately they were accepted for over two thousand years. His predecessors, Democritus and Leucippus more correct ideas on atomic theory were forgotten.
He believed that there were only five elements: air which was light, earth which was cool and heavy, water which was wet, fire which was hot, and Aether which he viewed as a divine substance which made up the stars and planets. Aristotle believed that all matter was made up either of one of the elements of water air earth and fire or combinations of these four elements, with the exception of stars and planets which were made of aether. He thought that no matter how many times you split matter, it always goes into a smaller piece of that matter.
Aristotle’s theory of matter has been proven wrong. Many more elements have been discovered. Just Looking at the periodic table proves this. The only thing Aristotle discovered that carries on to the modern atomic theory is the fact that there are elements, which is implied in Aristotle’s theory. A negative point about his theories it that they were accepted until the seventeenth century until physicists (then termed natural philosophers) such Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz began work that would ultimately disprove them.
