THE HISTORY OF

THE ATOM

DEMOCRITUS
DISCOVERY
450 -370
B.C.
During this time Greek philosophers wanted
to find a way to explain the natural world. Many
believed that a primary matter existed. It was of
this primary matter that other things were
created. Democritus believed that matter was
of particles which he called atomos
DEMOCRITUScomposed
(atoms) that could not be broken down further.
These atoms were all composed of the same
primary matter with only differences between
them being their size, shape, and weight. These
characteristics explained the differences in the
property of matter around us. But unfortunately
for Democritus his ideas was ignored for the next
2000 years

ARISTOTLES THEORY
384 322
B.C.

ARISTOT
LE

Aristotle wanted to see how atoms could stay in

never ending motion in a void. However, he was not
able to. He developed a theory that was based on the
four elements. Aristotle's theory made a great
generalization off all 4 elements: fire, water, earth,
and air. He also believed that there were four
qualities to these elements: dryness, hotness,
coldness, and moistness. Based on these beliefs fire
would hold the characteristics of being dry and hot,
water is wet and cold, air is hot and wet, while earth
is dry and cold.

ARISTOTLES THEORY

John Daltons Theory

JOHN DALTON

1766- 1844
For nearly 2000 years science was unable to
create experiments to test Democritus theory.
During the 19th century a vast amount of data on
how substances react with each other was collected.
John Dalton was usually credited with developing
the first atomic theory.
Daltons Theory:
1. Matter is composed of small particles called
atoms
2. All atoms of an element are identical, but
different from those of any other element
3. During chemical reactions, atoms are neither
created nor destroyed, but are rearranges
4. Atoms always combine in whole number
multiples of each other

JOHN DALTONS SYMBOLS

FOR THE ELEMENTS

DMITRI

Dmitri Mendeleevs
Discovery 1834- 1907
While writing a textbook for his
students Dmitri Mendeleev attempted to
classify the elements by some exact
principle. He believed that this exact
system should be numerical in nature to
eliminate any margin of arbitrariness. The
only numerical data that did not change
was the atomic weights. By arranging the
MENDELEEVelements in order of increasing atomic
weight he discovered that there existed a
periodicity of the elemental properties. He
used the periodicity to create a table in
which that elements with similar properties
were vertically aligned with each other.
Therefore making the first periodic table

THE FIRST
PERIODIC TABLE

Henri Becquerel

HENRI BECQUEREL

1852 - 1908
In 1869, Henri Becquerel discovered
that a sample of uranium was able to
expose a photographic plate (a flat sheet
of metal or glass on which a photographic
image can be recorded) even when the
sample and plate were separated by black
paper. He also discovered that the
exposure of the plate did not depend on
the chemical state of uranium and must be
due to some property of the uranium atom
itself. Soon after he discovered this he
abandoned his work which was continued
by Pierre and Marie Curie

Marie and Pierre Curie

(1867 - 1934)

Pierre and Marie Curie

(1859 -1906)
After Henri Becquerel abandoned his
work Marie and Pierre discovered other
radioactive elements including polonium,
radium, and thorium. Sadly, in 1906
Pierre was killed by a truck in the middle
of their work. Marie further suggested
that the uranium, and the new elements,
were somehow disintegrating over time
and it emitted radiation that exposed
the plate. She called this radioactivity.
For the first time it became apparent that
atoms might be composed of even
smaller particles

Earnest Rutherford
and
Paul Villard

Having radiation being emitted

from the elements being
disintegrating was a mystery until a
series of papers by Earnest
Rutherford in 1899 and Paul Villard in
1900. Earnest Rutherford determined
that the radiation emitted from
uranium was composed of two
different components he attempted
Earnest Rutherfordto separate them using prisms of
glass, aluminum, and paraffin wax
but with unsuccessful results.
Eventually, using two oppositely
charged plates, he identified the
components as positive particles
(alpha particles) and a lighter mass
negative (beta particles). Paul

Paul
Villard

The behavior of the three types of

particles as they pass through the
electric field between two charged
plates is shown below.

J.J. Thomson

(1856 1940)

J.J. Thomson

J.J. Thomson was venturing into the interior of the

atom. At the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge
University, Thomson was experimenting with currents of
electricity inside empty glass tubes. He was investigating
a long-standing puzzle known as "cathode rays." His
experiments prompted him to make a bold proposal: these
mysterious rays are streams of particles much smaller
than atoms, they are in fact smaller pieces of atoms. He
called these particles "corpuscles," and suggested that
they might make up all of the matter in atoms. It was
startling to imagine a particle residing inside the atom.
Most people thought that the atom was indivisible, the
most fundamental unit of matter. Thomson's speculation
was not unambiguously supported by his experiments. It
took more experimental work by Thomson and others to
sort out the confusion. The atom is now known to contain
other particles as well. Yet Thomson's bold suggestion that
cathode rays were material constituents of atoms turned
out to be correct. The rays are made up of electrons: very

Henry Moseley
1887- 1915

Henry Mosely

When an atom is bombarded with energetic

electrons, a rearrangement of the core electrons
can result in the emission of an x-ray. It had been
observed that the frequency of the emitted x-rays
was characteristic of the element bombarded. Since
the core electrons are those closest to the nucleus
the frequency of the emitted x-ray can be
influenced by the charge and structure of the
nucleus. As the nuclei of different elements have
different properties, it stands to reason that the
emitted x-ray should have different frequencies.
When Henry Moseley bombarded a number of
elements and determined the frequency of the
resulting x-rays he found that they fit the general
form shown below, where Q is taken as the number
of the element as it appeared in Mendeleev's

Earnest Rutherford

Earnest Rutherford

Following his gold scattering work that

led to the nuclear model of the atom,
Rutherford pursued a number of
experiments with lighter elements. While
bombarding a sample of nitrogen gas with
alpha particles, Rutherford detected a
particle with properties identical to that of a
hydrogen nucleus. After investigating all
possible sources of hydrogen atom
contamination, Rutherford concluded that
the nitrogen atom disintegrated under the
great force of the collision and the particle
released was a constituent part of the
nitrogen atom nucleus. In 1920, Rutherford
reported these results and suggested that
the hydrogen nucleus be called a "proton"
(during the same talk he proposed the

James Chadwick

James Chadwick

As of 1930, only two known elementary particles had been

identified, the proton and the electron. Protons were known to have
a mass of 1 and a charge of +1, while electrons had essentially no
mass and a charge of -1. Moseley had shown convincingly that the
charge on the nucleus increases in steps of +1 as one traverses the
periodic table. To account for this it was apparent that the nucleus
of each atom contained a number of protons equal to its atomic
number. In order to remain electrically neutral, it also contained an
equivalent number of electrons. The primary difficulty remaining
was accounting for the extra mass found in the nucleus. The most
prominent theory held that this mass was provided by extra
proton/electron pairs in nucleus. Consider helium as an example. It
is element #2 and therefore contained 2 protons and 2 electrons.
However, the helium atom was known to have a mass of 4. To
reach this mass would require an extra 2 protons. In order to
remain electrically neutral, an extra two electrons must also be
added. Unfortunately, experimental studies involving the spins
(angular momentum) of atoms, protons and electrons showed that
the proton/electron theory was invalid. The problem of the extra
nuclear mass was solved in 1932 when James Chadwick identified
the neutron. While studying the radiation resulting from the
bombardment of beryllium with alpha particles, Chadwick noted a
particle with approximately the same mass as a proton being
released. He determined that, as the particle was not bent by

This all brings us to the

modern view of the
nuclear atom
Atoms are composed of three elementary particles: the electron, the
proton and the neutron.
Most of the mass of the atom is concentrated in the nucleus of the
atom. The protons and neutrons reside in the nucleus while the
electrons exist outside of the nucleus.
In neutral atoms, the number of protons is equal to the number of
electrons.
The type of element each atom is determined by the number of
protons it has.
The number of protons in an element is equal to the atomic number
- the number on which the periodic table is based.
While every atom of an element has the same number of protons,
they do not all have the same mass. Atoms of the same element
with different masses are called isotopes.
The sum of the number of protons and neutrons in a particular atom
is called the mass number. The mass number is different for
different isotopes of the same element.