Air Particles

Each particle, or corpuscle, of air is a regular octohedron (8-sided geometrical solid). This is what air particles look like, according to Plato’s description in the Timaeus. In the center is the air-particle Plato describes at 55a, with 6 scalene triangles making up each equilateral face of the octohedron.  On the left is a simpler “isotope” with 2 scalene triangles per face; on the right is a more complex “isotope” with 8 scalene triangles per face.

Image of air particles

Image taken from Friedländer, Plato, vol. 1, An Introduction.


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Copyright © 2002, S. Marc Cohen