Plato

The Discovery of Electricity (Plato)

As early as the fourth century B.C., Plato noted that a yellow substance then known as elektron attracted lightweight objects when rubbed against a piece of fur. (This material is now known as amber, and it has been shown to be the fossilized resin from pine trees.)

Greek Elements (Plato)

Plato adopted Empedocles' theory and coined the term element to describe these four substances. Because he believed that geometry provided the best way of thinking about nature, he suggested that each element had a particular form. On the smallest possible scale, fire had the shape of a tetrahedron, air was an octahedron, water was an icosahedron, and earth was a cube.