Atomism is a philosophical term that emerged in the city of Greece in the 5th century BC. in which it is established that the universe is made up of millions of indivisible particles called atoms, which together form the great visible mass in which we all live.
The word atom comes from the Greek and means that it cannot be divided. Previously, the atomists defined it as the smallest particle, at the same time that they considered it extensive and indivisible and from which all things are made. Likewise, they maintained the idea that the world is composed of two fundamentally opposite bodies; atoms and emptiness, the latter being a negation of the former, that is to say nothing.
The theory of atomism indicates that atoms are immutable and travel through a vacuum forming different combinations which become substances, so they can be treated as very small building blocks while being indestructible. Thanks to its definition in Greek, all things that become indivisible or cannot be cut, can be said to be atomic.
During the nineteenth century, physicists and chemists created a theory in which they demonstrated the existence of certain particles that were part of an entire substance and, maintaining tradition, named them atoms. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, they discovered that these "atoms" were made up of smaller entities that they called the electron, neutron, and proton. Other research and experiments showed that even a neutron can be divided into more fundamental parts called quarks.
These studies left the doors open to pertinent investigations in search of the indivisible particle that the first atomists talked about so much, which cannot be confused with the atom that is talked about in chemistry.
