Atom And Qi Essay Research Paper Atom

Atom And Qi Essay, Research Paper

Atom & Qi

The atom is the smallest portion of a substance that is not perceivable by human senses. The notion of atoms was conceived by ancient Greeks and was developed over thousands of years of scientific inquiry. The concept of qi as the most basic substance of which the world (everything) is comprised, was understood by the ancient Chinese. Both atom and qi are believed to exist by human beings and both are considered to be unseen objects (until we could see atoms recently). However, they lead to different interpretations of natural phenomena: the concept of the atom was developed in relation to materiality , whereas qi is relavant to spirituality . The historical progression towards a belief in atoms promoted the deduction of atoms throughout centuries. Nowadays, the atom is universally believed by people to exist as the result of scientific evidence. In contrast, qi is not believed to be a scientific phenomena and is considered a religious or superstitious belief. As a result, in order to demonstrate the existence of qi and make it conceivable by modern physicists, the use of the scientific method becomes the qi researchers best tool. In addition, while qi and the atom were both conceived by ancient philosophers, the notion of the atom was better developed by scientists than the idea of qi. Therefore, by looking back at the historical progression towards a belief in atoms and the deduction of their structure, we know how scientists built up the atomic theory. Consequently, the concept of historical progression will help us understand why the notion of qi is hard to define by physicists, and how it could be developed into a scientific theory.

HISTORICAL PROGRESSION TOWARDS A BELIEF IN ATOMS

The concept of the atom originated in Greek philosophy around six hundred B.C. with the question: What is the world made of . (Sachs, 9). Thales first suggested that water [is] the basic building block of the world , and air, sand, and stone could be different forms of one fundamental substance (web page). Yet, Anoimenes believed mist or air was the cornerstone of matter (Clagett, 49). These ancient thinkers made simple and direct assertions about matter. Later, the idea of the atom was conceived and developed by Leucippus and Democritus in the fifth century B.C. and concluded that there must be parts which are partless such as sand, stone, water, or even a void which have the continuous and coherent appearance of a pure object though are not true structures (Young, 18). Therefore, the first conceived structure of the atom was thought to be continuous. Any one element that basically consists of discontinuous and identical substances would be called atoms (Young, 21). Further, Democritus defined the atom as different in shape, order, and position, placed thinly apart and packed together, moving in constant motion (Young, 19). The nature of atoms were intuitively thought out and deducted from ancient philosophy, thus no reason or evidence was applied. After Democritus, Lucretius (fifty eight B.C.) realized that atoms were bodies partly [as] first-beginnings of things, partly those which are formed of a union of first-beginnings (Young, 19). In fact, the existence and characteristics of atoms were initially depicted and believed in by ancient Greeks as an abstraction. Yet, the basic idea of the atom was redeveloped and investigated in later generations. To prove the abstract concept of atoms, rationality was considered, the key to scientific validity by Renaissance scientists. To rationalize Democritus idea of the continuum of matter, Descartes noted that everything around us has an extension so there is no void because void [by definition is nothing, and] cannot have extension (Boorse, 6). Later on, the theory of universal gravitation reveals Newton s atomic natural philosophy that observable matter is fundamentally an assemblage of bits, exchanging mutual forces at a distance, thereby causing each other to move in the way they do [like sets of stationary orbits] which reveals atomic motion. (Saches, 31). Using this theory, Newton taught us to visualize the unseen objects by comparing them to the solar system as a means to understand their function through observation. Thus, Descartes and Newton both perceived the idea of the atom in a logical way, and further, a process of mathematical and logical deduction was used to achieve a testable conclusion (Young, 43). In nineteenth century physics, the period of Determinism, mathematics was used to express the concepts of physics and it became the only tool to make new discoveries in the natural world (Sachs, 50). Newton s concept of the atom was determined by mathematics and was positively conceptualized. The quantum theory of measurement based on Newton s notion of the atom was claimed to be a final truth about the fundamental nature of elementary matter (Young, 64). Therefore, the notion of the atom became theorized in physics with no more questioning. However, in the twentieth century a new perspective developed out of quantum theory which transformed the view of the atom as a billiard ball. The fundamental laws were no longer deterministic, but became probability functions (Sachs, 65). Due to the inapplicability of old perspectives of the atom to determine laws governing the atom, probability was used as a tool of discovery (Sachs, 80). Although the properties of atoms could not