Name___________________________________

Science 7

The Story of the Atom

Trying to find out what
something looks like when you
cant see it is not a new
challenge. People began
wondering about matter more
than 2500 years ago. Some
of the Greek philosophers
thought that matter was
comprised of tiny particles.
They reasoned that you could
take a piece of matter, cut it
in half, cut the half-piece in
half again, and continue to cut
again and again. You
probably would only have one
particle left. They named
these particles atoms,
meaning cannot be divided.
Daltons Atomic Model

For a long time after the

ancient Greeks, people didnt
think much about atoms.
Finally during the 18th century,
scientist in laboratories began
to debate the existence of
atoms. By doing research
with different types of atoms,
they were able to see that
some types of matter changed
and others types couldnt be
broken down. A substance
that could not be broken down
was called an element.
English schoolteacher, John
Dalton then proposed that
atoms cannot be divided into

REMEMBER YOUR CODES

!
This is important.
I knew that.
X This is different from what I
thought.
?
I dont understand.

smaller pieces. He also said

that all atoms of the same
element are exactly alike, and
different elements are made
of different types of atoms.
But still, there was little
evidence.
Wheres the proof?

In the second half of the 19th

century, scientist wanted to
test Daltons theory. In 1870,
William Crookes used a
glass tube & metals without
any air in it (it had no matter
inside). When he hooked up
his tube to an electrical
source, he saw a green beam.
Was it light or something else?
Crookes held a magnet to the
tube and the green beam
bent toward the magnet. This
proved to William Crookes
that the green beam was not
light and had to be made of a
negatively charged particle
called an electron! J.J.
Thompson repeated William
Crookes experiment with

different types of metals and

came to the same results.
Thompsons Atomic Model

The findings from Crookes &

Thompsons experiments
proved that atoms had a
negative particle, the
electron. But if there is a
negative particle in atoms,
there must also be a positive
particle to balance out the
charge. J.J. Thompson
proposed that there was a
positive particle called a
proton that was present in
atoms, and each atom had the
same number of protons &
electrons to balance out the
charge.

clue as to where the protons

were within an atom.
Rutherford was expecting that
the protons where scattered

What Rutherford
What the
all though
out the atoms,
Rutherford
thought
way
chocolate chips are
in a
observed
cookie. Instead his results
showed that the protons were
found only in the center of the
atom (the nucleus), while the
electrons were floating on the
outside.

The Neutron

Rutherfords Atom

Scientist now knew that the

atom was composed of
protons and electrons, but
they wanted to see exactly
how these particles were
arranged within the atom.
Ernest Rutherford did an
experiment in which he shot
positive particles at a sheet of
gold. Since the gold was
made of atoms, the direction
the positive particles moved
through the gold should give a

The last piece of evidence

that didnt seem to fit was the
mass
ofRutherford
the atom. What
Electrons
What
Rutherford
thought
are much
smaller
than
Protons, therefore they have a
much smaller mass. When
scientists were calculating the
mass of different atoms it
seemed as if something was
missing because the mass of
the protons werent adding up
properly. It was then
suggested, by William
Chadwick, that besides just
positive and negative particles
(protons & electrons), atoms

must also have a neutral

particle called a neutron.
This particle has no charge
but it does have a mass that
is the same as the mass of a
proton. With this new particle
we have finally figured out a
model for the atom that
works!

Although we now have a

working model of the atom,
scientists are still looking for
evidence to further our
understanding of the atom.
With increasing technology
our chances of making new
discoveries grows every day.

Name_____________________________

The Story of the Atom Analysis

1. Define the
a. Atom-

following:

b. Element-

c. Nucleus-

d. Proton-

e. Neutron-

f. Electron-

2. Explain how indirect evidence was used to develop a model of the

atom

Story of the Atom Overview

People
Thoughts/ Discoveries
Greek Philosophers

Matter- ______ __________

named __________

John Dalton

Matter than couldnt be

________ or ____________
= _____________
________ made up
___________
Used an __________________
(No Matter) and saw a
beam. Beam moved
towards a ____________.
Beam = __________ particle
called an ______________
+ particle (___________) must
also exist!
# of _________ = # of
_________
Making matter
_______________

William Crookes

J.J. Thompson

Ernest Rutherford

William Chadwick

Protons are located in the

_________________ of the
atom
Electrons are located
__________ of the atom
___________ (neutral particle)
also exists