SH1690

The Atom, its Structure, and its Development

The People behind the Atomic Theory
Leucippus  Stated to be Democritus’ mentor
(around 500 - 401  He theorized that motion is meaningless without the Void, and
BC) it is wrong to associate the Void with nonexistence.
 His definition of the Void is actually a vacuum.
 He theorized as well that everything that is real contain
indivisible parts that comprise it, making these indivis ib le
things also real.
 Democritus borrowed his mentor’s idea, and improved upon it.
Empedocles  Proposed that everything is made up of four (4) elements:
(490 – 430 BC) • Fire – the element that can “cut” and “move”, but it is
“light”. It is both “hot” and “dry”.
• Air – the element that can “move” and is “light”, but
cannot “cut”. It is both “hot” and “moist”.
• Water – the element that cannot “cut” and is “heavy”,
but can “move”. It is “cold” and “moist”.
• Earth – the element that cannot “cut” and “move”, and
“heavy” as well. It is “cold” and “dry”.
Democritus  Proposed that if you kept cutting a substance in half forever,
(460 - 370 BC) eventually you would end up with an “uncuttable” particle.
 He called the particles atoms, meaning “indivisible” in Greek.
 Democritus thought that atoms were small, hard particles of a
single material and in different shapes and sizes.
 He thought that atoms were always moving and formed different
material by combining with each other.
 Aristotle disagreed with Democritus’ idea that would end up
with an indivisible particle. Because Aristotle had greater public
influence, Democritus’ ideas were ignored for centuries.
Plato  Proposed that everything made is not meant to be changed.
(428 - 348 BC)  Improved the idea of the four classical elements (fire, air, water,
and earth) by adding specific corpuscles (tiny particles), in
which every form of matter can be divided into one of the basic
four geometric solids, each having a unique shape.
• Tetrahedron for fire because its penetrating
points and sharp edges made it mobile.

• Octahedron for air because it can penetrate, but

is less mobile than fire.

• Icosahedron for water because it cannot

penetrate anything and is less mobile.

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• Cube for earth because it is immobile and stable.

 Due to the theory that each form of matter can be

divided by means of mathematics, and each corpuscle has an
unchanging level of reality, it offered a good account of changes
among the primary substances.
John Dalton  In his time, scientists knew that elements combined with each
(1766 - 1844) other in specific proportions form compounds.
 Dalton claimed that the reason for this was because elements are
made of atoms.
 His atomic theory can be summarized below:
• Elements are composed of extremely small particles
called atoms
• All atoms of a given element are identical, with the same
size, mass, and chemical properties. The atoms of one
element are different from the atoms of all other
elements.
• Compounds are composed of atoms of more than one
element. In any compound, the ratio of the numbers of
atoms of any of the two elements present is either an
integer or a simple fraction.
• A chemical reaction involves only in separation,
combination, or rearrangement of atoms; it does not
result in their creation or destruction.
Amedeo Avogadro  Corrected John Dalton’s theory in which equal volumes of gas,
(1776 - 1856) at equal temperature pressure contain equal numbers of
molecules.
 His law allowed him to study and deduce the diatomic nature of
numerous gases by studying the volumes at which these gases
reacted.
 His law is as follows:
• The amount of molecules, or atoms, in one mole of a
material is equal to the Avogadro’s number (NA), which
is equal to 6.0221415 × 1023 .
• The relationship of mass and volume of same gases, at
same temperature and pressure, corresponds to the
relationship between their respective molecular weights.

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Robert Brown  Noticed that dust particles within pollen grains seem to be
(1773 - 1858) jiggling erratically when it floats on water, for no reason.
 Jan Ingenhousz (1785) also described the movement by using
coal dust floating on alcohol.
 It was Albert Einstein (1905) and Marian Smoluchowski (1906)
proved Brown’s and Ingenhousz’s previous observations. They
have observed that the random jiggling motion the dust particles
made were, in fact, driven by the movement of smaller particles
in the liquid, which came to be known as atoms and molecules.
Joseph J. Thomson  Thomson used a cathode-ray tube to conduct an experiment
(1856 - 1940) which showed that there are small particles inside atoms.
 This discovery identified an error in Dalton’s atomic theory.
Atoms can be divided into smaller parts.
 Because the beam moved away from the negatively charged
plate towards the positively charged plate, Thomson knew that
the particles are negatively charged.
 He called these particle corpuscles. But now, these particles are
called electrons.
 Thomson changed the atomic theory to include the presence of
electrons. He knew there must be positive charges present to
balance the negative charges of the electrons.
 He proposed a model of an atom called the “plum-pudd ing”
model, in which negative electrons are scattered throughout soft
blobs of positively charged material.
Ernest Rutherford  Rutherford conducted an experiment in which he shot a beam of
(1871 - 1937) positively charged particles into a sheet of gold foil.
 He predicted that if atoms were soft, as the plum-pudding model
suggested, the particles would pass through the gold and
continue in a straight line.
 Most of the particles did continue in a straight line. However,
some of the particles were deflected to the sides a bit, and few
bounced straight back.
 Rutherford realized that the plum-pudding model did not
explain his observations. He changed the atomic theory and
developed a new model of the atom.
 He proposed that the nucleus is the tiny, extremely dense,
positively charged region in the center of an atom.
 Rutherford calculated that the nucleus was 10,000 times smaller
than the diameter of the atom.
 In Rutherford’s model, the atom is mostly empty space, and the
electrons travel in random paths around the nucleus.
Niels Bohr  Bohr suggested that electrons travel around the nucleus in
(1885 - 1962) definite paths.
 These paths are located at certain “levels” from the nucleus.
 Electrons cannot travel between paths, but they can jump from
one path to another.

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Henry Moseley  Moseley studied under the laboratory of Ernest Rutherford.

(1887 - 1915) There, he developed the application of X-ray spectra to study
the atomic structure.
 By measuring the wavelengths of the x-rays given off by certain
metals, he was able to determine the number of positive charges
in the nucleus of an atom.
 He revalidated the importance of the atomic number.
Louis de Broglie  He suggested that the modern atomic theory is based on the
(1892 - 1987) wave nature of the atom.
 In the wave mechanical theory, any moving particle has
associated wave properties, hence in relation to the atom, the
nucleus is a single cluster of particles at the center of the atom.
 Since electron have wave properties, electrons had no well-
defined orbits. Since electrons do not move about an atom in a
definite path, like the planets around the sun, electrons instead
move about in waves around the nucleus in a specific
wavelength.
Erwin Schrödinger  Adapted de Broglie’s idea and explored the idea of whether or
(1887 - 1961) not the movement of electrons in an atom could be explained
better as a wave than as a particle.
 Explained that electrons are wave functions. As such,
waveforms do not behave in a linear manner.
Werner Heisenberg  The father of quantum mechanics.
(1901 - 1976)  Proposed that every particle behaves in patterns that, when
subjected to changes, may or may not be the same as it was
before.
 Studied extensively about subatomic particles.
Reference:
Berndt, Chang, R. and Goldsby, K. (2013). Chemistry (11th edition). New York, NY: McGraw-
Hill Companies, Inc
Fraser, C. (2015). Size of stars. Retrieved November 22, 2016 from Universe Today:
http://www.universetoday.com/25331/size-of-stars/
The Big Bang Theory. Retrieved October 13, 2014 from:
http://physics.about.com/od/astronomy/f/BigBang.htm
The Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. Retrieved October 13, 2014 from:
http://physics.about.com/od/physicsatod/g/BigBangNucleosynthesis.htm
Nuclear Fusion. Retrieved October 13, 2014 from:
http://physics.about.com/od/glossary/g/nuclearfusion.htm
How Elements are formed in Stars. Retrieved October 20, 2014 from:
http://www.brighthub.com/science/space/articles/108157.aspx

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