PHYSICS 20B Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Minute And Second Of Arc, Parsec, Nicolaus Copernicus
Document Summary
Humans can understand the world according to logic rather than myth. E. g. postulated that earthquakes are caused by waves hitting the earth (and not by gods fighting) Thales was mainly known for his concept of explaining events through logic, rather than myth. Proposed that many worlds existed throughout the cosmos (other stars were other suns with planets). Some of those worlds populated with. life. Believed everything is made of indivisible units he called atoms . Everything, even the human soul, consisted of atoms. During this period, it is important to note that people 2500 years ago did not lack in ideas, but lacked in technology to test those ideas. Democritus believed that other worlds existed and that some of those worlds may contain life. This idea has pushed people to think about these concepts, to consider that there may be other significant discoveries outside our little world and that we should ask and research topics outside the box.
