ATOM

FROM THE EYES OF PHILOSOPHERS AND

SCIENTISTS
is a basic building block unit of
ordinary matter
The Greeks
History of the Atom

 In 400 B.C the Greeks tried

to understand matter
(chemicals) and broke them
down into earth, wind, fire,
and air.



 Democritus and Leucippus
Greek philosophers
 Democritus
Timeline: 400 BC

• Believed universe made of invisible units

called atoms
• Named them Atomos (atoms)
• Aristotle said “He’s a quack!!!”
• Took 2000 yrs to be proved right!
Greek Model
“To understand the very large,
we must understand the very small.”
Democritus
 Greek philosopher
 Idea of ‘democracy’
 Idea of ‘atomos’
 Atomos = ‘indivisible’
 No experiments to support
Democritus’s model of atom
idea
No protons, electrons, or neutrons
 Continuous vs. discontinuous
theory of matter Solid and INDESTRUCTABLE
Democritus
DEMOCRITUS (400 BC) – First Atomic Hypothesis
Atomos: Greek for “uncuttable”. Chop up a piece of matter until you reach the atomos.

Theory of the universe

All matter consist of atoms, which are bit of matter
too small to be seen.
There is an empty space between atoms
Atoms are completely solid
Atoms have no internal structure
Each atom (of a different substance) is different in
size, weight and shape
Four Element Theory

 Empedocles was an
atomist
 Thought all matter was
composed of 4 elements:
 Earth (cool, heavy)
 Water (wet)
 Fire (hot)
 Air (light)

Relation of the four elements and the four qualities

Blend these “elements” in different proportions to get all substances

Some Early Ideas on Matter

Anaxagoras (Greek, born 500 B.C.)

–Suggested every substance had its own kind of “seeds”
seeds that clustered together to
make the substance, much as our atoms cluster to make molecules.

Empedocles (Greek, born in Sicily, 490 B.C.)

–Suggested there were only four basic seeds – earth, air, fire, and water.
water The
elementary substances (atoms to us) combined in various ways to make
everything.

Democritus (Thracian, born 470 B.C.)

–Actually proposed the word atom (indivisible) because he believed that all
matter consisted of such tiny units with voids between, an idea quite similar to
our own beliefs. It was rejected by Aristotle and thus lost for 2000 years.

Aristotle (Greek, born 384 B.C.)

–Added the idea of “qualities” – heat, cold, dryness, moisture – as basic elements
which combined as shown in the diagram (previous page).
Hot + dry made fire; hot + wet made air, and so on.

O’Connor Davis, MacNab, McClellan, CHEMISTRY Experiments and Principles 1982, page 26,
an early scientific practice that was popular
in the middle ages. Considered as
forerunner of Chemistry based on the
transformation of matter.
1.Systematic Logical Approach
2. The knowledge of medicinal
Chemistry
3.Development of Industrial Chemistry
Key Players in Modern Atomic
Theory
Early Ideas on Elements
Robert Boyle stated...

A substance was an
element unless it could
be broken down to two
or more simpler
substances.

 Air therefore could not

be an element because
it could be broken down
in to many pure
substances.
Robert Boyle
John Dalton

• English school
teacher turned
Chemist
• Proposed his atomic
theory in 1808
 Dalton’s Atomic Theory

John Dalton
(1766 – 1844)

Wrote the first atomic theory

1. All elements are composed of tiny indivisible
particles called atoms
2. Atoms of the same element are identical.
Atoms of any one element are different from
those of any other element.

3. Atoms of different elements combine in simple whole-number

ratios to form chemical compounds
4. In chemical reactions, atoms are combined, separated, or
rearranged – but never changed into atoms of another element.
Every atom of a given element
always has one thing that is the
same. What is it?
 FYI……….Isotopes
Dalton was wrong about all
elements of the same type being
identical
Atoms of the same element can
have different numbers of
neutrons.
Thus, different mass numbers.
These are called isotopes.
Frederick Soddy

Frederick Soddy (1877-1956)

proposed the idea of isotopes in
1912 (note this was close to 30 years after Dalton’s original idea)

 Isotopes are atoms of the same element having different masses, due to
varying numbers of neutrons.

Soddy won the Nobel Prize in

Chemistry in 1921 for his work with
isotopes and radioactive materials.
The “Billiard Ball” Model

 proposed by John Dalton in 1804

 this
theory proposed that matter was
composed of small, spherical particles

 but evidence was later gathered that

matter was composed of even smaller
bits
 New Evidence
 during the 1900s evidence was discovered regarding
charges:
 atoms have positive (Rutherford’s contribution) and
negative (Thomson’s contribution) parts
 charges interact:

 as a result, revisions to Dalton’s model had to be

made
J.J. Thomson’s Cathode Ray
Experiment

• British Physicist
• Performed his
experiments in the
late 1800s
• Until this time, it was
not believed that the
atom was composed of
various parts
Thomson: “Plum Pudding” or
“Chocolate Chip Cookie” Model
 using available data on the atom, J.J. Thomson
came up with the idea of having charges
embedded with Dalton’s Billiard Balls
 Also used cathode ray experiment to discover the
existance of the electron

positive negative
(evenly distributed)
“chocolate”
“dough”
part

note: this model kept Dalton’s key ideas intact

 Plum Pudding Model

 
Thomson believed that electrons were like
raisins embedded in a positively charged
‘pudding’ (plum pudding model)
Discovery of the Electron
In 1897, J.J. Thomson used a cathode ray
tube to deduce the presence of a negatively
charged particle: the electron
Click on me:
http://www.mhhe.com/physsci/chemistry/essentialchemistry/flash/ruther14.swf
 Conclusions from the Study of the
Electron:

A. Cathode rays have identical properties

regardless of the element used to produce
them. All elements must contain identically
charged electrons.
B. Atoms are neutral, so there must be
positive particles in the atom to balance the
negative charge of the electrons
C. Electrons have so little mass that atoms
must contain other particles that account
for most of the mass
Ernest Rutherford

• New Zealander
• In 1911 performed
his gold foil
experiment
 Nuclear Model

Ernest Rutherford discovered a

huge flaw in the previous
concept of the atom during his
now famous gold foil
experiment
Rutherford
 Discovered the
Nucleus and the
Positive Protons
 Surmised atoms are
made of mostly
empty space
 Didn’t know about
the Neutrons
 Famous Gold Foil
Experiment
Gold Foil Experiment

• Particlesshot through thin sheet of gold

• Most shots went straight through
• A small amount were deflected
• Hence… The atoms must be made of mostly
empty space with a small dense nucleus
The Gold Foil
Experiment
Observations from gold foil experiment:

1) Most of the alpha particles passed

through the gold foil un-deflected
2) Very few bounced back (great
deflection)
 Rutherford’s problem:
In the following pictures, there is a target hidden by a
cloud. To figure out the shape of the target, we shot
some beams into the cloud and recorded where the
beams came out. Can you figure out the shape of the
target?

Target Target
#1 #2
 The Answers:

Target #1 Target #2
 Modern Atomic Theory

Actual
Results

Expected
Results
 Rutherford’s Conclusion:

1) The nucleus is small,

dense, and has a
positive charge
2) The nucleus is
composed of protons
and neutrons
 Rutherford’s Findings

* Most of the particles passed right through

* A few particles were deflected
* VERY FEW were greatly deflected

“Like howitzer shells

bouncing off of tissue
paper!”
Niels Bohr

1912
Convinced atom
was small positive
nucleus with
electrons orbiting
around it
Niels Bohr
 Discovered that electrons
exist in several distinct
layers or levels
 “Jimmy Neutron Model”
 Travel around nucleus like
planets travel around sun
 Electrons Orbit
 Electrons can jump
between levels with energy
being added/released
• Constructed model of
the hydrogen
Bohr Model atom with
quantized energy levels
(electrons can only
exist on certain energy
levels/rings)
Bohr Model
 Niels Bohr proposed that electrons revolve around the central
positive nucleus (like planets in the solar system)

negative electrons

3 positive protons
 Pros and Cons of the Bohr Model

Pros:
+The model gives Con:
us a clear visual -Electrons DO NOT
move around the
of the atom
nucleus in circular
+Accurate model orbits like planets
for Hydrogen orbiting the sun
Bohr Model

Carbon 6 Protons
6 Electrons
Bohr Model

Nitrogen
7 protons
7 electrons
Bohr Model

Sodium
? protons
? electrons
Heisenberg and Schrodinger

 Found that Electrons

live in fuzzy regions
or “clouds” not
distinct orbits
 Improved on Bohr’s
findings
 Electron location can
not be predicted
 Quantum Mechanical
Model
Quantum Mechanical Model
 the current understanding of the atom is based on
Quantum Mechanics

 this model sees the electrons not as individual

particles, but as behaving like a cloud - the
electron can be “anywhere” in a certain energy
level

 Remember back to CPE with electrons behaving

like bees in a beehive
Quantum Mechanical Model

electrons can be found

anywhere in these “shells”

note: the electrons

are still quantized
no electrons can
be found here
FYI: Chemistry

 most things we do can be explained using Dalton’s and/or Bohr’s

model

 the Quantum Mechanical model, although most accurate, is complex

even at a university level (conceptually and mathematically)
 Independent Practice

Create/complete the
timeline of the atomic
theory
What must be included?
 All 4 Scientists associated with the atomic theory

 The atomic model each scientist developed (include dates)

 The subatomic particles each scientist discovered

 The experiments that led to each discovery/ model