IIRC Epicurus postulated the curve in order to account for change -- if the whole universe is atoms moving in one direction at the same speed, with nothing to alter that arrangement, they will always remain in the same position relative to one another.
--- Charles Brown <cbrown at michiganlegal.org> wrote:
>
> Reply to Justin: I don't think Epicurus gave an
> explanation for the curve.
> At any rate, both Democrius' version of the atom and
> Epircurus' swerving
> atom are not precisely like the modern scientific
> descriptions, just
> interestingly overlapping pictures or concepts for
> obvious reasons
>
>
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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