[masterdell]

Hello,

My chemistry teacher is having a quiz tomorrow and he said that the question "List one object Aristotle could not explain" would be on it. Any help would be great. Thank you.

[Arkcon]

I'm afraid you're going to have to search your class notes, your textbook, or ask another student what the answer could possibly be.  The Classical Elements -- 4 or 5, as Aristotle added quintessence to describe the immutable aspects of heavenly bodies, remained a widely accepted concept well into the European Renaissance, and remain a major force in Hinduism, Buddhism and even Islam (although in those cases, highly metaphorical.)  I don't suspect you'll easily find something Aristotle couldn't explain, given the durability of the concept in the face of its shortcomings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_element#Greece

[masterdell]

So I did some hard thinking and I thought that it was either a star or meteorite. I put star... Turns out he was looking for meteorite. He said that a meteorite and a rainbow were the acceptable answers. Not really sure why a rainbow would be an answer since rainbows are not matter. Odd.

[Corribus]

I think this is one of those situations where a teacher tries to be too cute/clever and ends up creating a question that just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

[Arkcon]

Not really sure why a rainbow would be an answer since rainbows are not matter. Odd.

Neither is fire.    Modern apologists for the Aristotelian elements note that they connect better with the states of matter: Earth-solid, Water-liquid, Air-gas, Fire-plasma.  I'd suppose in thousands of years, people should have realized they were really talking about states of matter, when the noticed that water itself can appear as a solid, liquid or gas under conditions humans can experience without technology. 

Meh.  I believe it was Pliny who quoted some people who said clouds must be very dense, considering that thunder was clouds crashing together.  I'm something of a firm believer that you can't really do science without technology.  But whenever I say that, physicists and mathematicians want to bop me on the head.