The Models of the Atom

All life, whether in the form of trees, whales, mushrooms, bacteria or amoebas , consists
of cells. Similarly, all matter, whether in the form of aspirin, gold, vitamins, air or minerals,
consists of atoms, which, regardless of size, are made up of the same basic units. This took us
thousands of years to realize, and the present chapter is a journey through that history, one that
eventually gave us enough understanding and power to mimic, harm and repair nature in ways
never before possible.
The next five paragraphs are taken, almost word for word, from the Britannica DVD, 2000
edition.
Aristotle emphasized that nature consisted of four elements: air, earth, fire, and water. He
thought these are bearers of fundamental properties, dryness and heat being associated with fire,
heat and moisture with air, moisture and cold with water, and cold and dryness with earth. He did
not believe in discontinuous or separate atoms but felt that matter was continuous.
Democritus (b. c. 460 BC; d. c. 370 BC) postulated the existence of invisible atoms,
characterized only by quantitative properties: size, shape, and motion. Imagine these atoms as
indivisible spheres, the smallest pieces of an element that still behave like the entire chunk of
matter.
Dalton (b. Sept. 6, 1766, England; d. July 27, 1844) deduced the law of multiple proportions,
which stated that when two elements form more than one compound by combining in more than
one proportion by weight, the weight of one element in one of the compounds is in simple,
integer ratios to its weights in the other compounds. For example, Dalton knew that oxygen and
carbon could combine to form two different compounds and that carbon dioxide (CO2) contains
twice as much oxygen by weight as carbon monoxide (CO). In this case, the ratio of oxygen in
one compound to the amount of oxygen in the other is the simple integer ratio 2:1. Although
Dalton called his theory "modern" to differentiate it from Democritus' philosophy, he retained
the Greek term atom to honour the ancients. Also, Dalton gave us more insight into molecules,
but his idea of the atom was not that different from that of Democritus: he still imagined atoms

as tiny bowling balls.

J.J. Thomson (b. Dec. 18, 1856, England d. Aug. 30, 1940,) held that atoms are uniform
spheres of positively charged matter in which electrons are embedded. He realized that electrons
existed by improving Crookes tube, a tube that contained a small amount of gas through which
electricity was passed. Crooke had noticed that the rays inside the tube were bent by a magnet,
something that ordinary light does not do. By developing a better vacuum, Thomson showed that
these same rays also bend towards the positive plate of a battery, no matter what gas produces

them.
Thomson concluded that these cathode rays were basic particles found in all elements. He
went on to propose what is popularly known as the plum-pudding model of the atom. In other
words he thought that atoms were not indivisible spheres, but positive spheres with negative
electrons embedded in them. It had to be abandoned (1911) on both theoretical and experimental
grounds in favour of the Rutherford atomic model.

Ernest Rutherford. (b. Aug. 30, 1871, New Zealand; d. Oct. 19, 1937, England)
The model described the atom as a tiny, dense, positively charged core called a nucleus, in
which nearly all the mass is concentrated, around which the light, negative constituents, called
electrons, circulate at some distance, much like planets revolving around the Sun. The
Rutherford atomic model has been alternatively called the nuclear atom, or the planetary model
of the atom. The young physicists beamed alpha particles through gold foil and detected them as
flashes of light or scintillations on a screen. The gold foil was only 0.00004 centimeter thick.
Most of the alpha particles went straight through the foil, but some were deflected by the foil and
hit a spot on a screen placed off to one side. Geiger and Marsden found that about
one in 20,000 alpha particles had been deflected 45o or more. Rutherford asked why so many
alpha particles passed through the gold foil while a few were deflected so greatly. "It was almost
as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper, and it came back to hit
you," Rutherford said later. "On consideration, I realized that this scattering backwards must be
the result of a single collision, and when I made calculations I saw that it was impossible to get
anything of that order of magnitude unless you took a system in which the greater part of the
mass of the atom was concentrated in a minute nucleus. It was then that I had the idea of an atom

with a minute massive center carrying a charge."

Niels Bohr In 1913 he proposed his quantized shell model of the atom to explain how electrons
can have stable orbits around the nucleus. The motion of the electrons in the Rutherford model
was unstable because, according to classical mechanics and electromagnetic theory, any charged
particle moving on a curved path emits electromagnetic radiation; thus, the electrons would lose
energy and spiral into the nucleus. To remedy the stability problem, Bohr modified the
Rutherford model by requiring that the electrons move in orbits of fixed size and energy. The
energy of an electron depends on the size of the orbit and is lower for smaller orbits. Radiation
can occur only when the electron jumps from one orbit to another. The atom will be completely
stable in the state with the smallest orbit, since there is no orbit of lower energy into which the
electron can jump.

The Hydrogen Spectrum

See other spectra

(From http://www.achilles.net/~jtalbot/data/elements/)
Summary
Model of the Atom

Sketch

Experimental
Evidence

Democritus

none

Dalton

Some, but
youre not
responsible for

Description of
Model
Atoms are made up
of discontinuous,
indivisible spheres

An atom is
divisible

knowing it

Atoms of
the same
element are
identical.

Atoms of
different
elements
have
different
masses

Atoms can
be
rearranged
to produce
new
substances.

Thomson

When
electricity was
passed through
a small amount
of gas, cathode
rays(electrons)
were produced.
These were
attracted to a
positive plate.
He also
worked out the
charge to mass
ratio of these
"rays"
confirming that
they were
indeed
particles.

A neutral atom is
made up of an equal
number of positive
and negative
particles.(the plumpudding model)

Rutherford

Alpha
particles(+)
were fired at a
sheet of thin
gold foil.
Surprisingly a
few particles
bounced
backthis was

The nucleus of the

atom is extremely
small and positively
charged. The rest of
the atom is mostly
empty space and it
contains electrons.

like toilet
paper stopping
rifle bullets.

Bohr

(436 only)
Hydrogen gas
spectrum
consists of thin
lines of red,
green, blue and
violet.

Electrons can only

occupy certain
energy levels
around the positive
nucleus.

Charge

Origin

Particle Glossary
Particle/Ray

Other name

electron

Beta Particles, , cathode rays

Negative.
[theyre
attracted to
(+)]

alpha particle

helium nucleus,

positive (+2),
From radioactive
[theyre
decay
attracted to (-)]

From radioactive
decay

gamma rays,

none; theyre a
form of energy
and are not
attracted to
either positives
or negatives.

From radioactive
decay

proton

+1

Basic particle of
nucleus; defines the
atom = number of
protons =atomic
number

neutron

neutral

Basic particle of
nucleus; changes
the mass of an atom
and creates
different isotopes,

but does not affect

chemical properties