History Of Atomic Theory Essay

The history of the atomic theory is thoroughly extensive. It had all started around 400 BCE when few people believed in an atomic theory, that atoms are building blocks. Democratic believed matter was made up of tiny particles. He called them atomos. Democratic is Leucippus’ most infamous pupil Later in history, the law of definite proportions was discovered. Two samples of given compounds are made of the same elements in exactly same proportions by mass regardless of the size or sources of the samples. After this came the law of conservation of mass and law of multiple proportions. Around 1808, John Dalton came up with a different atomic theory. He used Greek concept of the atom and all of the laws previously mentioned to acquire his

Aristotle’s model of the universe was a geocentric universe. This meant that the Earth was at the centre of the universe and that all stars were on a celestial sphere. A celestial sphere is an imaginary sphere which acts as a dome around the Earth from which you can see the stars and the universe. Although Aristotle’s model was good for its time it could not explain retrograde motion of the planets.

Around 2,500 years ago, Democritus and his partner Leucippus were the first ones to develop the atomic theory in written history. Their theory proposed that every kind of matter was made up of tiny particles, which were named atomos, which means that it is indivisible. This meant that Democritus and Leucippus thought there were little particles of everything, but, the next breakthrough in atomic theory wasn’t made until the early 1800s with a french chemist by the name of Antoine Lavoisier, he was the one who came up with the idea of the law of the conservation of mass, which states that matter stays the same even when it changes shape or form. Then, James Dalton said that all matter was made up of atoms, which were indivisible, and unbreakable.

He stated that this was a mysterious force but never continued his research on it. Then in 460 B.C. there was a philosopher named Democritus. Democritus and his mentor Leocippus posed the question that if he broke bread into multiple pieces how many would breaks would it take until there was no more bread. He then was able to make a few theories being all matter was created of atoms and atoms are solid but not invisible. However, there was a man named Aristotle and many other philosophers who disagreed with Democritus and said matter was composed of four main elements. Earth, fire, air, and water. For example, a liquid was made of water and a stone was made of rock. Therefore, Democritus’s theory “ was rejected by Aristotle, one of the most influential philosophers of Ancient Greece; and the atomic theory was ignored for nearly 2,000 years.”(

During the early 1940’s atomic science had just began to mature. Many people were exploring the powerful mystery of the atom. Two of those people were Eugene Booth and John Dunning, who, in 1941, synthesized uranium-235. Immense scientific growth followed their contribution, since it allowed for nuclear fission (Griffith). In the years following this discovery, nuclear science took a turn. Once only used as a constructive power source, atoms began being explored for their destructive power. In 1942 the United States government funded the Manhattan Project that sole goal was to develop a nuclear bomb. The initiator for this endeavor was surprisingly the famous scientist Albert Einstein. He wrote to Franklin D. Roosevelt , and tipped him off

On July 16, 1945 a new age was beginning. The "atomic age", also known as the "atomic era" is the period in history that follows the detonation of the first atomic bomb. It is December 7, 1941 and a new chapter in the history of the United States is about to start. The sky is crowed by Japanese fighter planes, bomb and bullets rain all over the American naval base at Pearl Harbor resulting in considerable human and material losses. The American territory has already fell under the attack that would lead America to join World War II. Led for almost four years of confrontation as well as death and the need to eradicate the Japanese army and therefore, end the devastating world war, the United states build the most powerful weapon the world had

In 5th century BC, a Greek philosopher named Democritus created the earliest form of the theory of matter. He was aware that two halves of a stone were overall identical, so he came to the conclusion that the stone would eventually become too small to cut if it continued to be separated. He referred to these minuscule pieces of matter as "atomos", the Greek word for indivisible. Democritus theorized that an atom differed in size and shape, as well as believing that they were in

Upon securing victory in Japan, whatever relief the American people felt from winning WWII was tempered by the realization that science had just created a weapon that could wipe nations off the face of the earth. The atomic bomb, if other countries obtained the technology, could bring about a nuclear holocaust. This fear of technology could have stymied scientific progress post WWII. However, going into the Cold War, people once again put their hope in science and looked at scientific progress as a measure of whether they were beating the Soviet Union. This was most evident in the space race, as both countries invested large amounts of resources into their space programs. Somehow, both countries had decided that scientific research for going into space would be the frontier upon which they would fight their indirect war.

The law of conservation of mass states that mass cannot created or destroyed but how did this law come to be. Well the ancient Greeks proposed that the total amount of matter in the universe is constant. But the law was first confirmed in about 1785 by Antoine Lavoisier when he weighed his reactants before the reaction and after the reaction and they weighed the same. We can still perform this experiment and see that Lavoisier's conclusion was true.

One important contribution that Antoine Lavoisier made to chemistry was the conservation of mass. In France, the law of conservation of mass is commonly referred to as Lavoisier’s Law showing the lasting impression that he made on the world of chemistry (Donovan, 2017). The law, in its entirety, envelopes the ideas that matter can be transformed from one form to another, mixtures can be separated or developed, and pure substances can be broken down, but the mass will always remain constant (World of Chemicals, 2017). The law was first identified in the Traité élémentaire de Chimie, a book that incorporated the foundations of modern chemistry in 1789 (American Chemical Society, 1999). Originally, the law of conservation of mass was an assumption

Ernest Rutherford proposed in 1911 the atom as consisting of a core called nucleus, consisting of heavy protons surrounded by electrons. For the atomic bomb, it is only necessary to consider the nucleus. Around the same time, Neils Bohr and others developed quantum mechanics that deepened our understanding of the atom.

the advent of the nuclear age brought with it increased concern about national security as well as human survival. since the first atomic bomb was exploded over hiroshima on august 6 1945 advances in nuclear technology and delivery systems have only served to enhance the potential dangers. whereas almost 100,000 people lost their lives on the fateful day in hiroshima, nuclear weapons currently threaten the lives of hundreds of millions. the nuclear revolution has resulted in the develpment of bombs measured in

The Discovery of the Atom first came from the Greeks which made a theory “The idea that all matter is made up of tiny, indivisible particles, or atoms, is believed to have originated with the Greek philosopher Leucippus of Miletus and his student Democritus of Abdera in the 5th century B.C. (The word atom comes from the Greek word atomos, which means “indivisible.”)” (InfoPlease Atomic theory)

Aristotle's physics separated the universe into two main areas: the terrestrial realm and the celestial realm. The terrestrial realm was composed of the four elements: earth, wind, water and fire, which could each be either hot, wet, dry or cold, and the celestial realm made of ether, or what Aristotle called the "quintessence."

John Dalton did many things in his life. He was most known for his Atomic Theory, Law of Multiple Proportions, Dalton 's Law Partial Pressures, and Daltonism. He had a noble award for Royal Medals.