Surprisingly, but the ingenious guess stated at the time by the Greek philosopher Levkipp became now nearly a trivial fact. The idea about existence of atoms - a characteristic example of how the theory can outstrip an experiment.
Instruction
1. In the 5th century BC Levkipp asked a question to what degree it is possible to divide matter into parts. By philosophical reflections he came to a conclusion that finally it is possible to receive such particle which further division will become impossible.
2. The philosopher Democritus, the pupil Levkippa, gave these particles the name "atoms" (from Greek atomos — "indivisible"). He made the assumption that atoms of all elements differ in a form and the sizes, and that these distinctions cause different properties of elements.
3. Democritus created the atomic theory similar to modern. But it was only result of philosophical reflections which was not supported with an experiment. For science this case is remarkable the fact that the theory outstripped practice.
4. And only later 2000, in 1662, the chemist Robert Boyle made the first experiment capable to confirm the atomic nature of substance. Compressing air in an U-shaped tube under the influence of a mercury column, Boyle found out that the volume of the air which is in a tube is inversely proportional to pressure: V = const/P, where V - the volume of air, P - pressure, const - some constant. On another this ratio can be written down so: PV = const.
5. In 14 years after that, the physicist Edme Marriott confirmed this ratio and noted that it is carried out only at a constant temperature.
6. Now this ratio is called Boyle-Mariotta's law and is, functionally, a special case of the equation of Mendeleyev-Klapeyrona which describes more wide range of the phenomena: PV/T = vR = const where T is temperature, v is amount of substance (mol), R is a universal gas constant.
7. Boyle and Marriott's results can be explained only if to recognize that air consists of the smallest particles divided by empty space. At air compression, atoms approach, the volume of empty space between them decreases.
8. So, Boyle and Marriott's experiments on compression of air prove existence of atoms.