Particle

“ We term the most minute particle of matter, which we imagine to be no longer capable of division, an atom, and consider matter to be composed of such atoms, acquiring from them its qualities, and existing by their reciprocal attraction and repulsion. But the word atom is merely an expression for a necessary conception, required for certain purposes. ”

“ I have tried to demonstrate that an ultimate particle, and hence every body, has five essentials or concomitants, these terms being practically synonymous. It has been shown that there is something absolute and something relative in every one. The essentials of the particle are unity, extension, speed, persistence, and consciousness, which are absolute. The relations which arise from them, in order, are multeity, position, path, change, and choice, which give rise to number, extension, motion, time, and judgment, as properties that can be measured. ”

“ Law of Gravitation.—Every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other particle with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. ”

“ Bodies may be dissected, substances may be analyzed, essentials may be abstracted in consideration.
The essentials are indissoluble in every particle. Where there is no unit there is no extension, no speed and no persistence. Where there is no speed there is no unit, no extension, no persistence. Where there is no persistence there is no unit, no extension and no speed. If any of the essentials of a particle of inanimate matter be taken away, the matter disappears. A particle is the essentials of which it is composed, and it has no other substrate. ”

“ A geometrician exactly knew the different energies acting in each case, with the properties of the particles moved, could demonstrate that after the causes given, each particle acted precisely as it ought to act, and that it could not have acted otherwise than it did. ”

“ We have been seeking, in this chapter, to define matter so that there must be such a thing if the formulæ of physics are true. If we had made our definition such as to secure that a particle of matter should be what one thinks of as substantial, a hard, definite lump, we should not have been sure that any such thing exists. ”

“ For if the bodies are divided into particles proportional to the wholes, and alike situated in them, it will be, as the attraction towards any particle of one of the bodies to the attraction towards the correspondent particle in the other body, so are the attractions towards the several particles of the first body, to the attractions towards the several correspondent particles of the other body; and, by composition, so is the attraction towards the first whole body to the attraction towards the second whole body. ”

“ One class has no special particle in the passive, the active particle being um; in the others the special particle has generally initial p in the passive, which becomes m in the imperative-infinitive and future active, and n in the preterite and present active, as pag, mag, nag, etc. ”

“ When two or more elements unite to form a compound, the action consists in the union of a definite small number of atoms of each element to form a small particle of the compound. The smallest particles of a given compound are therefore exactly alike in the number and kinds of atoms which they contain, and larger masses of the substances are simply aggregations of these least particles. ”

“ Bodies are resolved into more and more simple and homogeneous substances, and it is the theory of some chemists that ultimate analysis will resolve them into one simple kind, so that every particle will be like every other particle in all its properties. ”

“ And the paper itself may be conceived to exercise such a force: it is many particles thick, while the thin layer of matter is only one particle thick, and thus it will keep the layer of matter, which covers one side of it, in its place by virtue of its own attraction. ”

“ For, if the very mathematical centre of the central particle be not accurately in the very mathematical centre of the attractive power of the whole mass, the particle will not be attracted equally on all sides. And much harder is it to suppose all the particles, in an infinite space, should be so accurately poised, one among another, as to stand still in a perfect equilibrium. ”

“ Can a particle of matter which consists only of a definite number of atoms of definite chemical composition manifest any of those characters which characterize life? Take as an extreme instance the brain of an ant which is not larger than a quarter of a good-sized pin’s head. ”

“ Whenever an -particle is expelled the group in the periodic system to which the resultant product belongs is two units less than that to which the parent body belongs.
2. Whenever a -particle is expelled, the group of the resultant body is unit greater than that of the parent. ”

“ The chemist and the physicist have undertaken to study the structure and the composition of matter. And the more minutely it has been studied, the more wonderful does it seem when it is considered as a specimen of engineering and architectural construction. We were formerly told that the varied forms of matter which surround us were composed of a comparatively few elementary substances, each of which was composed of particles called atoms ”

“ A Surd is a radical whose meaning cannot be exactly ascertained. This class comprises a very large number of particles.
II.
Index indicates the degree, or power, to which a particle is raised. It consists of two letters, placed to the right of the symbol representing the particle. Thus, 'A.A.' signifies the 0th degree; 'B.A.' the 1st degree; and so on, till we reach 'M.A.' the 2nd degree (the intermediate letters indicating fractions of a degree) ”

“ And, the explanation of a phenomenon consisting, as we have seen, in an exhibition of its genesis from its simplest beginnings, the mind, in its attempts to explain the gaseous form, naturally retraces the steps in the evolution of its ideas concerning matter—of its concepts of matter—back to the earliest, most familiar, and therefore apparently simplest form in which matter was and is apprehended, and assumes the solid particle, the atom, as the ultimate fact, as the primary element for all representation and conception of material existence. ”

“ Let us now leave the forces which animate large masses of matter, and proceed to discuss those which subsist between the smaller particles of which these large masses are composed. And here we must say one word more about molecules and atoms, and the distinction we feel ourselves entitled to draw between these very small bodies, even although we shall never be able to see either the one or the other. ”

“ It is obvious, that if elementary matter consists of indestructible and indivisible particles, each of which constantly preserves the same weight relatively to all the others, compounds formed by the aggregation of two, three, four, or more such particles must exemplify the rule of combination in definite proportions deduced from observation. ”

“ True or false, it is the definitive theory of matter of the twentieth century.
Quite aside from the question of the exact constitution of the ultimate particles of matter, questions as to the distribution of such particles, their mutual relations, properties, and actions, came in for a full share of attention during the nineteenth century, though the foundations for the modern speculations were furnished in a previous epoch. ”

“ In the scientific picture of molecules constituting a physical body, of atoms constituting the molecules, of electrons, protons, etc., constituting the atoms, all separated by spaces far exceeding the size of the elementary particles themselves, we find reflected, in a form comprehensible to the onlooker-consciousness, the fact that matter, even in the solid state, is kept in spatial extension by a field of force relating it to the cosmic periphery. ”

“ Permanence of Properties of Bodies.—We have already seen that, in explaining the properties of matter as we find them in nature, the assumption of solid, hard, indestructible particles is of no use or value. But we may remark, before quitting the subject, that Newton appears to have had another reason for assuming such particles, and one well worthy of notice. ”

“ From a consideration of the chemical properties of the elements we shall now turn to an examination of the physical characteristics, although in a certain sense chemistry itself is but one special phase of physics.
If matter is really constructed of independently existing particles—atoms and molecules—the interplay of the individual parts must determine not only the chemical activities, but also the other properties of matter. ”

“ All elements are made up of minute, independent particles which Dalton designated as atoms.
2. All atoms of the same element have equal masses; those of different elements have different masses; in any change to which an atom is subjected its mass does not change. ”

“ THE idea that matter is an aggregate of minute particles, each of which possesses all the essential properties of the mass, is as old as Democritus, but it was left for the present century to crystallize the conception of the atom in clear and accurate expression. ”

“ But if their quantities of matter are unequal, then, at an average of all the chances, each will intercept a number of particles proportional to its quantity of matter, and so the forces with which the bodies are impelled toward one another, will be as the quantity of matter directly, and the square of the distance inversely. ”

“ Moreover, that the divided but contiguous particles of bodies may be separated from one another, is matter of observation; and, in the particles that remain undivided, our minds are able to distinguish yet lesser parts, as is mathematically demonstrated. ”

“ This theory assumes (1) that all matter is made up of small indivisible and indestructible particles, called “atoms”; (2) that all atoms are not alike, there being as many different sorts of atoms as there are elements; (3) that the atoms constituting any one element are exactly alike and are of definite weight; and (4) that compounds are produced by the combination of different atoms. ”

“ Such a mass of imaginary matter as we are now considering may be compared to a collection of heavy particles held in position relatively to one another by a system of light spiral springs, one spring being supposed to connect each pair of adjacent particles. ”

“ He has taught the method of expressing and calculating such forces, and he and other mathematicians of his school have applied this method to many of the most important questions of physics; as capillary action, the elasticity of solids, the conduction and radiation of heat. The explanation of many apparently unconnected and curious observed facts by these mathematical theories gives a strong assurance that its essential principles are true. But it must be observed that the actual constitution of bodies as composed of distinct and separate particles is by no means proved by these coincidences. ”

“ An example of this is, when the simple propositions are connected by the particle or; as, either A is B or C is D; or by the particle if; as, A is B if C is D. In the former case, the proposition is called disjunctive, in the latter, conditional: the name hypothetical was originally common to both. ”

“ Because the attractive power of a large body is greater than that of a small one. As each atom of matter has inherent power of attraction, it follows that a large aggregation of particles must attract in proportion to the number of those particles. ”

“ Now, if a large probability were established in favour of the view that different atoms are collocations of different numbers of identical particles, or of equal numbers of differently arranged identical particles, we should have a guide which might lead to methods whereby one collocation of particles could be formed from another collocation of the same particles, a guide which might lead to methods whereby one element could be transformed into another element. ”

“ At present, let us confine our attention to liquids and solids.
The theoretical or perfect fluid which is imagined by the mathematician as the basis of certain abstract reasonings has no real existence. He assumes (and the assumption is legitimate and desirable, provided its imaginary character is always remembered) that the supposed particles move upon each other with perfect freedom, without any friction or other impediment ”

“ They are not elements, because each of them contains an infinite variety of particles, and each of these particles, again, is not elementary, because each contains an infinite variety of particles; which particles, again, are not elementary, because each contains an infinite variety of particles, and so on for ever. ”

“ "It was never supposed that cogitation is inherent in matter, or that every particle is a thinking being. Yet, if any part of matter be devoid of thought, what part can we suppose to think? Matter can differ from matter only in form, density, bulk, motion, and direction of motion: to which of these, however varied or combined, can consciousness be annexed? To be round or square, to be solid or fluid, to be great or little, to be moved slowly or swiftly one way or another, are modes of material existence, all equally alien from the nature of cogitation. ”

“ The Theory, when dogmatically taught as a physical truth, asserts that all observable quantities of elements are composed of proportional numbers of particles which can no further be subdivided; but all which observation teaches us is, that if there be such particles, they are smaller than the smallest observable quantities. In chemical experiment, at least, there is not the slightest positive evidence for the existence of such atoms. ”