2100 years ago, in his treatise "On the Nature of Things...

2100 years ago, in his treatise "On the Nature of Things," Lucretius inferred the existence of atoms from Brownian Motion.

Verses 113–140 from Book II:
>"Observe what happens when sunbeams are admitted into a building and shed light on its shadowy places. You will see a multitude of tiny particles mingling in a multitude of ways... their dancing is an actual indication of underlying movements of matter that are hidden from our sight... It originates with the atoms which move of themselves [i.e., spontaneously]. Then those small compound bodies that are least removed from the impetus of the atoms are set in motion by the impact of their invisible blows and in turn cannon against slightly larger bodies. So the movement mounts up from the atoms and gradually emerges to the level of our senses, so that those bodies are in motion that we see in sunbeams, moved by blows that remain invisible."

I find this phenomenal. 60 BCE, atomic theory from Brownian motion.

It's crazy how smart the ancients were


the Ancient Egyptians for example understood General Relativity before Einstein

Omg, did bill nye told you that XD i fukin luv science WUBUBADUBDUB did you know that particles are waves and that's why you are faggot LOLOLOLOLO

why have we forgotten about golden ratio and the ancient wisdom Veeky Forums?

This guy needs an element named after him.

Fuck Tennesine.

Are you triggered by other people showing love to the things you also love?

You don't get credit for postulates in science.

You don't know what a postulate is.

He used Occam's razor to infer atomic theory from Brownian motion.

He's up at the violation of his special club, he cannot accept others.

It's crazy how smart the ancients were, due to pagan philosophy, which was stifled until the Enlightenment by the Christians.

>Precautions must also be taken in the neighbourhood of swamps, both for the reasons given, and because there are bred certain minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, which float in the air and enter the body through the mouth and nose and there cause serious diseases.

this is like claiming that some greek guy discovered gravity before newton cause he saw something fall down

That's not even close to similar, you retard.
Learn to form better anecdotes.

How is that an application of Occam's razor and how is guesswork proper science?

Did a kang tell you that?

It's not proper science because the scientific method had not yet been invented.

It is, however, trying to explain an observed phenomenon with the simplest hypothesis.

Consider (wiki):
>Atoms and molecules had long been theorized as the constituents of matter, and Albert Einstein published a paper in 1905 that explained in precise detail how the motion Brown had observed was a result of the pollen being moved by individual water molecules. This explanation of Brownian motion served as convincing evidence that atoms and molecules exist.

Brownian motion was accepted by the scientific community as compelling evidence for the existence of atoms because the atomic theory was, per Einstein's paper, the simplest explanation of Brownian motion (Occam's razor). Lucretius was just a step away from that; he inferred atomic theory from Brownian motion and only did not have the mathematics or scientific instruments to formulate a precise explanatory mechanism like Einstein did because neither the mathematics nor the scientific instruments had yet been invented. Lucretius was spot-on as a natural philosopher millennia ahead of his time.

Again, Einstein's explanation of Brownian motion as resulting from the movement of molecules was "guesswork," as you call it, but Occam's razor made it convincing to scientists that atoms exist. Lucretius's inference is thus equally compelling if we relativize to the tools of his day.

WE WUZ GREEKS

Why are we lowering the bar for Lucretius? He could've very well invented the scientific method and gone past stating a hypothesis. I can make any claim I want, but it's meaningless until I prove it.

Here you go again, thinking he made a meaningless claim. Are you the same guy who thought his hypothesis of atomic theory was a postulate? Because it wasn't, whatsoever. It was an Occam's razor inference from observing Brownian motion, just like Einstein's atomic theory of Brownian motion but without the math.

>ancient germ theory
Nice

he wasn't making a meaningless claim he was clearly making an observation, to which (if he had the proper scientific method) he would have followed with inquisition and tests

You're mixing up science and philosophy.

At the time, they were the same thing; it was called "Natural Philosophy."

Brainlet doesn't even know Newton's book name. Wtf I hate Veeky Forums now.

This is the absolute state of Veeky Forums

Insighful no doubt, and it proved to be true, but the greeks were found on explaining everything with whatever idea came to mind, and never follow or test those ideas.

The idea that anyone can explain something, but knowledge that allows you to predict things is more useful than simple explanations, now that was a brilliant insight.

Literal autism