Emily Elliott
Scientists who Contributed to Atomic Theory
20 September 20 What is Atomic Theory? Atomic theory is the theory that all matter is made up of tiny indivisible particles called atoms. This paper will discuss its beginnings and some of the scientists who made major contributions to how it is defined today.
Background
Since the earliest of times, scientists and philosophers have known that the universe is more than just what it appears to be, but instead there is a deeper, more complex makeup beneath the surface. The ancient Greeks called it “the four elements”2, though some, like Democritus, believed that everything was made of tiny indivisible particles called atoms.3 Later, however, with advancements in technology, scientists such as John Dalton, JJ Thomson, Ernest Rutherford, and James Chadwick were able to prove the existence of an indivisible particle with a dense, positively charged nucleus consisting of protons and neutrons with electrons orbiting the nucleus.1 With this knowledge, others were able to dig deeper, and discover so much more about atomic theory, such as Brown’s equation for the motion of an electron,6 Dirac’s discovery of the positron,11 Fermi’s research in nuclear fission to create the atomic bomb,13 and Gell-Mann’s discovery of the quark.14 Each discovery made by these men has shaped the world in some way or another, and even now more discoveries are being made, but only because of the foundation laid out by those who set atomic
John Dalton wrote the modern atomic theory, a fundamental component of that is, the mole ratios of elements in a compound will be small whole numbers.
In this experiment, you will have a chance to test the hypothesis that Ernest Rutherford used when determining the size of the nucleus. In his "gold foil experiment," Rutherford shot alpha particles at gold atoms. Once he realized that the alpha particles were hitting a concentrated positive mass, he developed the nuclear model of the atom. Next, he set out to determine the relative size of the nucleus compared to the rest of the atom. He reasoned that the smaller the nucleus, the less likely it was to be hit by an alpha particle. This led to a simple comparative ratio:
To discover what the universe is made of and how it works is the challenge of particle
Then in 1661, Irish chemist Robert Boyle supported the philosophers’ theory of how chemical elements are made up of the simplest matter, backing the theory of how matter makes up all life and is the smallest living thing (Doc. 1). But a bombshell happened in 1803 when John Dalton backed up all three theories by discovering that atoms make up all matter, and chemical compounds are made of atoms (OI).
To explain, beginning with the basic atomic building blocks, a perfect harmony of protons, electrons and neutrons must be in a balanced existence for any and all to even occur. In addition, through scientific study our species has discovered how notions of gravity, oxygen, and complex interactions between energy and matter all coexist (once again in perfect harmony) to create the moment us ‘humans’ take so fiercely for granted. Whether through direct social control, notions of ‘common sense’, popular norms, and all the other various politics of life it is easy to lose sight of the clarity, divinity, and simplicity of the
What is an atom? An atom is the basic building block of everything. An atom is made of electrons protons and neutrons and the number of protons determines the element. Back in the 1800’s this whole idea was unknown. In the 1800’s steam was starting to power everything. It became important to know how steam works, so you can learn to use it more effectively. It was this idea that drove Dalton to research the atom.
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.
The second main contributor toward the atomic structure was John Dalton. John Dalton was the one who brought the atomic theory talk back into play after 2000 years from Democritus. Dalton become fond of the atomic structure following his love from meteorology. He claimed that the forces of repulsion that caused pressure only were between the same atoms and the atoms inside a mixture had different weights and complexity. He then decided to calculate the atomic weights by determining the percentages of each composition in a compound. This allowed him to be able to
Democritus made the atomic theory widely known, which stated that the universe is composed of two elements: the atoms and the void in which these atoms exist and move. (More, 1646)
Over the course of the last 5000 years, mankind’s knowledge has been constantly advancing. Chemistry, a branch of science, has experienced a tremendous leap and expansions since ancient Greek civilization. One of the major breakthroughs in the advancement in Chemistry was the creation of the Atomic theory, which laid a foundation for the modern-day Chemistry and future of science. The Atomic theory introduced the idea of atoms, which are defined as the discrete units of matter. There are five key scientists that significantly contributed to the Atomic model over a span of thousands of years. They are: Democritus, John Dalton, J.J. Thompson, Ernest Rutherford, and Niels Bohr.
into the blood. Doctors would measure the amount of tracer that is found in the urine of their patient in order to diagnose them. Which is the only subatomic particle that is directly involved in the chemical reactions between atoms? The only subatomic particle that is directly involved is an electron. What is potential energy? Potential energy is energy that matter has due to its location or structure. Explain which has more potential energy in each pair: boy at the top of a slide/boy at the bottom Boy at top of a slide because of his location. electron in the first energy shell/electron in the third energy shell Electron in third energy shell because of its relative distance from the nucleus water/glucose Glucose because of its structure (glucose has more chemical bonds) What determines the chemical behavior of an atom? The distribution of electrons in the electron shells determines the chemical behavior of an atom. For sodium: How many valence electrons does it have? 1 valence electron How many protons does it have? 11 protons Section 3 15. Define molecule. A molecule is formed by two or more atoms held together by a covalent bond. 16. Now, refer back to your definition of a compound and fill in the following chart: Molecule? Compound? Molecular Formula Structural Formula (y/n) (y/n) Water Yes Yes H2O H - O - H Carbon Dioxide Yes Yes CO2 O = C = O Methane Yes Yes CH4 Oxygen Yes No O2 O = O What type of bond is seen in O2? Explain what this means. A double covalent bond is
An Atom is the the basic building block of all matter. Atoms are made up of Particles, called: Protons, neutrons and Electrons. Protons carry a positive charge, the neutron carry 's a neutral charge and the electron carry’s a negative charge. The Atom has two main parts the Nucleus and the Electron Shell. The Nucleus contains the Protons and Neutrons. The electron Shell Contains the The electrons.
Kekule and Couper’s theory was not all without fault; it is suprising that they did not recognize atoms as three-dimensional objects if they were to be understood as true particles of matter in space. It was not until 1875 when van’t Hoff and LeBel proposed their hypothesis of compounds and atoms taking up space. Their hypothesis went as follows: Four bonds of carbon were located at equal angles to each other in space, this would be a rectangular tetrahedron. Immense amounts of proof have been supplied to support this theory, but is not universally accepted. It is believed today that this hypothesis is pure nonsense, proving that van’t Hoff and LeBel were misdirected. It goes to show science is not
Due mostly to work by Albert Einstein, but also Ernest Rutherford and others, the scientific view of the universe took a drastic turn. These scientists recognized flaws in the classical Newtonian view of the universe. The recognition of these flaws led to the development of the Quantum Theory of Matter as well as Einstein's Relativity Theory. These theories, as well as the discoveries that they led to, incorporated the entire universe as being comprised of energy, and that particles, time, and space, are just different representations of this energy.