Democritus
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40 free Democritus trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Democritus argued, around 2,400 years ago, that everything is made of tiny particles too small to see. He had no instruments and no experiments to lean on, only reasoning, and the word he chose for those particles is still in every chemistry textbook. This quiz collects the fun facts about Democritus that make him more than a name in a science lesson: the strange stories ancient biographers told about his habits, his fortune and his death, the famous thinkers who admired or resented him, and the places his name turns up today. It suits students meeting the atomic theory for the first time, philosophy readers, and anyone who likes a good ancient anecdote. Each question comes with a short explanation, so you pick up the story behind every answer as you play.
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Q 01Which nickname did the ancient world give Democritus for his outlook on human affairs?
The laughing philosopher
The laughing philosopher was his ancient tag, yet the one surviving line of his that mentions laughter says human misfortunes call for tears instead.
Q 02According to an ancient report, what did Plato wish to do with every book Democritus had written?
Burn them all
Plato wanted to burn them all, the report goes, until two Pythagoreans pointed out that the books were already too widely circulated for it to work.
Q 03Legend says Democritus deliberately ruined what, so nothing could distract him from study?
His eyesight
His eyesight was the supposed sacrifice, but the tale is generally treated as the invention of a later age that was fond of colourful anecdotes.
Q 04By one account, the dying Democritus outlasted a three-day festival by inhaling steam from what?
Hot loaves
Hot loaves, held to his nostrils each day, supposedly kept him alive so his sister could attend the Thesmophoria; he then let his life go without pain.
Q 05A crater in the far north of which world carries the name of Democritus?
The Moon
The Moon carries his name on a crater in its far north, given by Giovanni Riccioli in 1651 under a naming system that is still the standard for lunar features.
Q 06Democritus named his tiniest particles with the Greek word atomos, which literally means what?
Uncuttable
Uncuttable is the literal meaning, a name that stuck even after modern physics showed atoms can be split into protons, neutrons and electrons.
Q 07Democritus's home city was a byword among ancient Greeks and Romans for which trait of its people?
Stupidity
Stupidity was the stock joke about his fellow townsfolk: the Philogelos, a Greek joke book of the 4th century AD, gives them a whole chapter as literal-minded fools.
Q 08Which future revolutionary wrote his 1841 doctoral thesis comparing Democritus with a later atomist?
Karl Marx
Karl Marx submitted the thesis to the University of Jena and dedicated it to Ludwig von Westphalen, his mentor and future father-in-law.
Q 09Democritus reportedly said he visited which famous city and nobody there knew him?
Athens
Athens ignored him, by his own account, though one ancient writer insisted he never went at all because he thought the great city beneath his notice.
Q 10Studying in a garden room, Democritus reportedly failed to notice which animal tied up beside him?
An ox
An ox, brought by his father for sacrifice, stood tethered there for a considerable time before Democritus was roused and told about it.
Q 11Democritus is classed as coming 'before' which philosopher, though he outlived him by decades?
Socrates
Socrates was put to death in 399 BC, while Democritus lived on until about 370 BC, which is why scholars call the 'pre-Socratic' label chronologically inaccurate.
Q 12Which rival philosopher wrote a now-lost monograph on Democritus and preserved much of his thought?
Aristotle
Aristotle is the best surviving witness to his ideas, and even as their chief critic he praised Democritus for arguing in the way a natural philosopher should.
Q 13Democritus taught that only two things are truly real: atoms and what else?
The void
The void, plain empty space, gave his atoms room to move, and he imagined countless worlds scattered through it, some of them with no sun at all.
Q 21Which later philosopher adopted Democritus's atoms but added a random 'swerve' to allow free will?
Epicurus
Epicurus picked up the theory at one remove, from a teacher named Nausiphanes who followed Democritus, and argued that without the swerve every act would be fixed by cause and effect.
Q 22Which Roman poet put the atomism Democritus pioneered into Latin verse in On the Nature of Things?
Lucretius
Lucretius filled some 7,400 hexameter lines with atoms, and a much-doubted ancient note claims he wrote them between bouts of madness brought on by a love potion.
Q 23Painters often pair Democritus with which gloomy thinker, shown in tears beside him?
Heraclitus
Q 14Democritus inherited part of his wealthy father's estate; what did he reportedly spend it all on?
Foreign travel
Foreign travel swallowed the lot: as the third son he reportedly chose the smaller share of the estate because it came in money he could take on the road.
Q 15Democritus is said to have gone to which country to learn geometry from its priests?
Egypt
Egypt held him for five years by one account, and he praised the knowledge of its mathematicians while insisting he was in no way their inferior.
Q 16Democritus held that which feature of the night sky was really the glow of a great many stars?
The Milky Way
The Milky Way stayed a matter of argument for some two thousand years, until Galileo's telescope resolved the band of light into individual stars in 1610.
Q 17Which English chemist revived Democritus's atom in the early 1800s with a theory of atomic weights?
John Dalton
John Dalton gave chemistry's newly measured particles the ancient name, and his method of calculating their relative weights made molecular formulas possible.
Q 18Democritus declared he would rather discover one true cause than possess the kingdom of which land?
Persia
Persia could not tempt him: he made the discovery of causes the highest aim of inquiry and called the everyday notion of chance a cover for human ignorance.
Q 19Democritus developed atomism with which teacher, traditionally credited as the theory's founder?
Leucippus
Leucippus left so little behind that all his writing is lost except one sentence, and a later Greek philosopher even claimed he had never existed.
Q 20Democritus came from which Greek city on the coast of Thrace, also home to the lyric poet Anacreon?
Abdera
Abdera is honoured through its most famous son: the university serving that corner of Greece is named the Democritus University of Thrace.
Heraclitus weeps over human folly in the pairing, which Bramante painted in 1486; Montaigne later wrote an essay on the two men and sided with Democritus.
Q 24Archimedes says Democritus first stated which solid has a third of a matching cylinder's volume?
A cone
A cone was the case Democritus stated without a rigorous proof; Eudoxus supplied one some fifty years later, and it survives in Euclid's Elements.
Q 25According to Democritus, what did some atoms have on their surfaces that let them cling together?
Tiny hooks
Tiny hooks and barbs let atoms tangle when they met, his way of explaining why some compounds hold together instead of flying apart.
Q 26A Democritus maxim warns against which life choice, since doing it well takes great trouble?
Having children
Having children also risked what the maxim calls the cruellest of all pains, seeing them grow up badly; his ethics survive mostly as blunt sayings of this kind.
Q 27Democritus's rich father reportedly hosted which invading king as his army marched through Thrace?
Xerxes
Xerxes was on his way to invade Greece in 480 BC, and is said to have left learned men behind who taught the young Democritus theology and astronomy.
Q 28In 1961 Greece gave the name of Democritus to a national centre for which kind of research?
Nuclear
Nuclear research for peaceful purposes was the founding aim of the Demokritos centre, whose 5 MW research reactor is the only one in Greece.
Q 29Democritus reportedly spotted which future sophist working as a porter and took him in as a pupil?
Protagoras
Protagoras had tied his load of wood so neatly, the story goes, that Democritus judged him a mathematical prodigy and taught him philosophy.
Q 30Democritus reportedly tested his sense-impressions by seeking solitude in which eerie places?
Tombs
Tombs offered silence and solitude; the same hunger for quiet had him wall off a little room in the family garden and shut himself inside to work.