How did Democritus find Discover the ATOM?
He didn’t (I’ll second that answer and expound a bit). He (and some Indian philosophers among others) thought for philosophical reasons that the universe should be made up of tiny indivisible bits. John Dalton discovered the atom. He borrowed Democritus’ word. It turned out, though, that Dalton’s atoms weren’t indivisible, so they weren’t what Democritus meant by his philosophy at all. But we’re stuck with the word, which causes the misconception that Democritus discovered the atom (as we know it today). So even though Democritus has nothing whatsoever to do with atomic theory or chemistry, chemistry books like to start by talking about him. I think it’s to obscure the true origins of their field in the studies of the medieval alchemists, who actually did the semi-scientific explorations that laid the basis for Dalton and chemistry.
