ASTR 101 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Chemical Element, Subatomic Particle, Phase Transition
Document Summary
One of the primary results from the field of spectroscopy was the discovery of how the energy outputed by an object (its spectrum) changes with temperature. Nothing escapes change of some sort (it is impossible to step into the same river). On the other hand, parmenides argued that everything is what it is, so that it cannot become what is not (change is impossible because a substance would have to transition through nothing to become something else, which logical contradiction). An ingenious escape was proposed in the fifth century b. c. by democritus. The atoms themselves remain unchanged, but move about in space to combine in various ways to form all macroscopic objects. Early atomic theory stated that the characteristics of an object are determined by the shape of its atoms. So, for example, sweet things are made of smooth atoms, bitter things are made of sharp atoms.
