Research

DEMOCRITUS

Lived from: 460-370 BC

Put forward atomic model in: 442 BC

Description of his model:

Democritus’s model stated that matter consists of invisible particles called atoms and a void (empty space). He
stated that atoms are indestructible and unchangeable. Also that they are homogenous, meaning they have no
internal structure. His atomic model was solid, and stated all atoms differ in size, shape, mass, position and
arrangement, with a void exists between them.

More Information:
Democritus, a Greek who lived from 460 BCE to 370 B.C., developed a new theory of matter; his ideas were
based on reasoning rather than science, and drew on the teachings of two Greek philosophers who came before
him: Leucippus and Anaxagoras.

Democritus knew that if you took a stone and cut it in half, each half had the same properties as the original
stone. He reasoned that if you continued to cut the stone into smaller and smaller pieces, at some point you
would reach a piece so tiny that it could no longer be divided.

Democritus called these infinitesimally small pieces of matter atomos, meaning "indivisible." He suggested that
atomos were eternal and could not be destroyed. Democritus theorized that atomos were specific to the material
that they made up, meaning that the atomos of stone were unique to stone and different from the atomos of
other materials, such as fur. This was a remarkable theory that attempted to explain the whole physical world in
terms of a small number of ideas.

FUR STONE

Ultimately, though, Aristotle and Plato, two of the best-known philosophers of Ancient Greece, rejected
the theories of Democritus. Aristotle accepted the theory ofEmpedocles (Empedocles argued that all matter was
composed of four elements: fire, air, water, and earth. The ratio of these four elements affected the properties of
the matter). Aristotle added his own (incorrect) idea that the four core elementscould be transformed into one
another.

Because of Aristotle's great influence, Democritus' theory would have to wait almost 2,000 years before being
rediscovered.

Summary:
The goal of the Greek philosophers was to explain the natural world. Coming to the conclusion of the phenomena
they observed, that a single "primary matter" existed. It was of this primary matter, modified in various ways,
that all other things were created.

Democritus expanded this theory to state that matter was composed of small particles called "atoms" that could
be divided no further. These atoms were all composed of the same primary matter with the only differences
between them being their size, shape, mass, positions and arrangement. The differences in these characteristics
explained the differences in the properties of the matter around us.
 JOHN DALTON

Lived from: 1766-1844

Put forward atomic model in: 1803

Nickname for his model: Billiard Ball Model

Description of his model:

Dalton was an English chemist and teacher who used experimental evidence to form the atomic theory of matter:

1. All elements are composed (made up) of atoms. It is impossible to divide or destroy an atom.
2. All atoms of the same element are alike. (One atom of oxygen is like another atom of oxygen.)
3. Atoms of different elements are different. (An atom of oxygen is different than an atom of hydrogen)
4. Atoms of different elements combine to form a compound. These atoms have to be in definite whole number
ratios. For example, water is a compound made up of 2 atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. (A ratio of
2:1) Three atoms of hydrogen and 2 atoms of oxygen cannot combine to make water.
5. Chemical reactions occur when atoms are separated, joined, or rearranged. Atoms of one element are never
changed into atoms of another element as a result of a chemical reaction.

An interactive, virtual set of experiments that allow you to recreate classic experiments from the 19th century.

"Solid Sphere Model" or "Billiard Ball Model" proposed by Dalton

Dalton's Elements
 More Information:
John Dalton investigated into the great depths of chemistry. He came up with a theory on the smallest particles
in the universe, of what makes up what we call"matter". All matter consists of indivisible particles. Dalton gave
the name to these minute particles, the atom.There are different types of atoms, these are called elements.
Hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen are examples of elements. Each of these elements is different from one another
only by its weight. Atoms of the same element all have the same mass. Atoms of different elements are different
in mass. Dalton used symbols to represent the elements. He imagined atoms to be tiny spheres, thus to draw
atoms would be to draw circles.

He used patterns within the circles to distinguish the different elements. Using this way to symbolize invisible
atoms, he could experiment with their combiningproperties. He created a "Table of Atomic Weights" and using
the information from this table, he placed them in a significant order determined by the weight of the elements,
comparing them to hydrogen, the lightest element, which is number one on the table and has the atomic
number of 1.

Dalton discovered the "Law of Multiple Proportions". This states that the weights of elements always combine
with one another in ratios of small whole numbers. Dalton experimented with a gas called nitric oxide (NO) and
oxygen (O). He reacted them together to produce a third type of gas. The results were determined by the
proportions or ratios of the two reacting gasses.

2NO + O -> N2O3

NO + O -> NO2

Dalton carried out experiments like this, using the law of multiple proportions, and completed the table of atomic
weights.

Summary:
John Dalton was an English chemist. His ideas from "the Atomic theory of Matter." Here are his ideas:

1. Matter consists of indivisible atoms.

2. All of the atoms of a given chemical element are identical in mass and in all other properties.
3. Different chemical elements have different kinds of atoms; in particular, their atoms have different masses.
4. Atoms are indestructible and retain their identities in chemical reactions.
5. A compound forms from its elements through the combination of atoms of unlike elements in small whole
number ratios, such as 1 to 1, 2 to 2, 2 to 3, and so on (ratio of water is 2 hydrogen atoms to 1 oxygen atom).

J.J. THOMSON

Lived from: December 18, 1856 - August 30, 1940.

Put forward atomic model in: 1904

Nickname for his model: Plum Pudding Model (or Raisin

Bread Model)

Description of his model:

Thomson’s model was known as the "Plum Pudding Model” (or
"Raisin Bread Model.") As each atom was a sphere filled with a
positively charged fluid, known as the “pudding”. Scattered in
this fluid were negatively charged electrons, these were the
“plums” in the pudding. Thomson suggested that the positive fluid held the negatively charged electrons in the
atom because of its electrical forces.

More Information:

In 1897, J. J. Thomson dramatically changed the modern view of the

atom with his discovery of the electron.Thomson's work suggested
that the atom was not an "indivisible" particle as John Dalton had
suggested but a jigsaw puzzle made of smaller pieces.

Thomson's notion of the electron came from his work with a

nineteenth century scientific curiosity: the cathode ray tube. For years
scientists had known that if an electric current was passed through a
vacuum tube, a stream of glowing material could be seen; however, no
one could explain why. Thomson found that the mysterious glowing
stream would bend toward a positively charged electric plate. Thomson
theorized, and was later proven correct, that the stream was in fact made up of small particles, pieces
of atoms that carried a negative charge. These particles were later named electrons.

After Eugen Goldstein's 1886 discovery that atoms had positive charges, Thomson imagined that atoms looked
like pieces of raisin bread, a structure in which clumps of small, negatively charged electrons (the "raisins") were
scattered inside a smear of positive charges. In 1908, Ernest Rutherford, a former student of Thomson's, proved
Thomson's raisin bread structure incorrect.

Cathode Ray
Summary:
J.J. Thomson was an English scientist. He discovered the electron when he was experimenting with gas
discharge tubes. He noticed a movement in a tube.He called the movement cathode rays.The rays moved from
the negative end of the tube to the positive end.He realized that the rays were made of negatively charged
particles – electrons.

LORD ERNEST RUTHERFORD

Lived from: 1871- 1937
Put forward atomic model in: 1911
Nickname for his model: Planetary Model
Description of his model:
Rutherford proposed that atoms consisted of a small dense center filled
with positive charges. He named this center the nucleus. He then said that negatively charged electrons were
scattered surrounding this dense, positively charged center. He stated these negatively charged electrons
were held in orbit by the positively charged nucleus, due to the electrical forces.

Other Information:
Rutherford performed a series of experiments with radioactive alpha particles. While it was unclear at the time
what the alpha particle was, it was known to be very tiny. Rutherford fired tiny alpha particles at solid objects
such as gold foil. He found that while most of the alpha particles passed right through the gold foil, a small
number of alpha particles passed through at an angle (as if they had bumped up against something) and some
bounced straight back like a tennis ball hitting a wall. Rutherford's experiments suggested that gold foil, and
matter in general, had holes in it! These holes allowed most of the alpha particles to pass directly through, while
a small number ricocheted off or bounced straight back because they hit a solid object.

In 1911, Rutherford proposed a revolutionary view of the atom. He suggested that the atom consisted of a small,
 dense core of positively charged particles in the center (or nucleus) of the atom, surrounded by a swirling ring
of electrons. Thenucleus was so dense that the alpha particles would bounce off of it, but the electrons were so
tiny, and spread out at such great distances, that the alpha particles would pass right through this area of the
atom. Rutherford's atom resembled a tiny solar system with the positively charged nucleus always at the center
and the electrons revolving around the nucleus.

The positively charged particles in the nucleus of the atom were called protons. Protons carry an equal, but
opposite, charge to electrons, but protons are much larger and heavier than electrons.

Summary:
Ernest Rutherford conducted a famous experiment called the gold foil experiment. He took a thin sheet of gold
foil. He used special equipment to shoot alpha particles (positively charged particles) at the gold foil. Most
particles passed straight through the foil like the foil was not there. Some particles went straight back or were
deflected (went in another direction) as if they had hit something. The experiment shows:

1. atoms are made of a small positive nucleus because positive nucleus repels (pushes away) positive alpha
particles;
2. atoms are mostly empty space

NIELS BOHR

Lived from: 1885 to 1962

Put forward atomic model in: 1913

Nickname for his model: Energy Level Model

Description of his model:

Bohr’s atom like Rutherford’s contained a dense, positive nucleus. He expanded on Rutherford’s ideas, turning his
attention to describing the electron. He stated they moved in fixed, circular orbits (or energy levels) around the
nucleus, these called electron shells. These shells were at set distances from the nucleus and were the same for
all atoms. He stated they became larger the further away they are from the nucleus, and that electrons furthest
from the nucleus have higher energy. He identified that an electron can jump from a lower orbit to a higher orbit
by absorbing energy, this can be done in the forms of heat, light or
electricity. These electrons then lose energy when they are allowed to
cool, giving them the emission spectra for all different elements.

Shells Added to the Atom

 As you can see, the shells and levels that Niels Bohr discovered are visible in this model.

More Information:
A simple definition of Bohr’s atomic model is: electrons orbit the nucleus at set distances. When an electron
changes orbits, it does so in a sudden quantum leap. The energy difference between the initial and final orbit is
emitted by the atom in bundles of electromagnetic radiation called photons. This model was proposed in 1913 by
Niels Bohr and was really an expansion on the Rutherford model of 1911. The Rutherford model had several
flaws that the Bohr model overcame.

The Bohr model was based on his observations of the atomic emissions spectrum of the hydrogen atom. When
white light is diffracted with a prism, all the colors of the visible spectrum can be seen. Each color corresponds to
a specific amount of energy; however when the light given off by the hydrogen atom was passed through a
prism, only certain colors of light could be seen. This led Bohr to theorize that electrons only have certain
energies in an atom and they had to be in energy levels. Bohr found the energy of the colors of light that the
hydrogen atom released. He used these energies to find the energies that the single electron in the hydrogen
atom could have. Bohr said that the electron had to release energy to change its energy so the differences
between the energies of light seen in the atomic spectrum should correspond to the differences in energies of the
energy levels.

Niels Bohr, a Danish scientist, explained this line spectrum while developing a model for the atom:

 The Bohr model shows that the electrons in atoms are in orbits of differing energy around the nucleus (think of
planets orbiting around the sun).

 Bohr used the term energy levels (or shells) to describe these orbits of differing energy. He said that the energy
of an electron is quantized, meaning electrons can have one energy level or another but nothing in between.

 The energy level an electron normally occupies is called its ground state. But it can move to a higher-energy,
less-stable level, or shell, by absorbing energy. This higher-energy, less-stable state is called the
electron’s excited state.

 After it’s done being excited, the electron can return to its original ground state by releasing the energy it has
absorbed, as shown in the diagram below.

 Sometimes the energy released by electrons occupies the portion of theelectromagnetic spectrum (the range of
wavelengths of energy) that humans detect as visible light. Slight variations in the amount of the energy are seen
as light of different colors.

Bohr found that the closer an electron is to the nucleus, the less energy it needs, but the farther away it is, the
more energy it needs. So Bohr numbered the electron’s energy levels. The higher the energy-level number, the
farther away the electron is from the nucleus — and the higher the energy.

Bohr also found that the various energy levels can hold differing numbers of electrons: energy level 1 may hold
up to 2 electrons, energy level 2 may hold up to 8 electrons, and so on.

The Bohr model works well for very simple atoms such as hydrogen (which has 1 electron) but not for more
complex atoms.
Summary:
Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist he was from Copenhagen, Denmark. He proposed a model of the atom that is
similar to the model of the solar system. The electrons go around the nucleus like planets orbit around the sun.
All electrons have their energy levels – a certain distance from the nucleus.Each energy level can hold a certain
number of electrons. Level 1 can hold 2 electrons, Level 2- 8 electrons, Level 3- 18 electrons, and level 4 – 32
electrons. The energy of electrons goes up from level 1 to other levels.When electrons release (lose) energy they
go down a level. When electrons absorb (gain) energy, they go to a higher level. After a lot of hard work, Bohr
was able to create a new version of the atomic structure which is still used even today to identify the basic
characteristics of an atom.