Who imagined the concept of an 'atomos'?

• A. Aristotle
• B. Bacon
• C. Democritus
• D. Lavoisier

Answer: (C)

The concept being tested is the origin of the idea that matter is made of tiny, indivisible particles called atoms (atomos). Democritus, together with Leucippus in ancient Greece, imagined atomism, proposing that everything is composed of small, indivisible building blocks that move through empty space. This view explains how different substances arise from different types and arrangements of these atoms, even though they are otherwise indivisible. Aristotle later argued for a continuous matter made of four elements, which is why his view differs from atomism. Bacon focused on building knowledge through observation and experimentation, and Lavoisier advanced modern chemistry and mass conservation, but neither introduced the concept of atoms.