4/8/2024 0 Comments Father of atomic theoryProtons and neutrons can be further broken down: they’re both made up of things called “ quarks.” As far as we can tell, quarks can’t be broken down into smaller components, making them the smallest things we know of. Who first founded the atom?Īlthough the concept of the atom dates back to the ideas of Democritus, the English meteorologist and chemist John Dalton formulated the first modern description of it as the fundamental building block of chemical structures. … The ancient Greek atomists theorized that nature consists of two fundamental principles: atom and void. “uncuttable, indivisible”) is a natural philosophy proposing that the physical world is composed of fundamental indivisible components known as atoms. What is introduced atomism?Ītomism (from Greek ἄτομον, atomon, i.e. He is sometimes called the “father” of atomic theory, but judging from this photo on the right “grandfather” might be a better term. A more detailed discussion of the atom will have to wait for more questions from eager Inquiring Minds readers! Be sure to send us your physics questions.The idea that everything is made of atoms was pioneered by John Dalton (1766-1844) in a book he published in 1808. Since these electron clouds (10 -10 m) are 10 000 times larger than the radius of the nucleus, the atom is mostly empty space. Negatively-charged electrons orbit the nucleus in cloud-like volumes of space designated "orbitals" in quantum theory. We know today that the atom consists of a tiny (10 -14 m) nucleus containing positive charges (protons) and neutral particles (neutrons), both of which consist of more fundamental particles called quarks. Now however, he had found the nucleus of the atom, thus proving the atom had components. Rutherford knew from Thomson’s work that atoms contained electrons. An occasional alpha particle speeding directly toward such a core would be slowed, stopped, and rebound directly back due to electromagnetic forces. It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you." The only way alpha particles could bounce directly back toward the "gun" that fired them was if the atom had a compact, positively charged core. In Rutherford’s words, "It was the most incredible event that has ever happened to me in my life. But to Rutherford’s amazement, Marsden found that some alpha particles came straight back after being fired at a thin gold foil. Indeed most alpha particles were scarcely deflected. Hans Geiger, Rutherford’s colleague, suggested that their student Ernest Marsden look for deflections of alpha particles through very thin foils, feeling certain that large deflections would not occur. Some radioactive substances emit alpha particles (very massive, positively charged particles) and Rutherford thought that by studying how positive alpha particles in a beam were scattered by the atoms of a material one could infer the atom’s internal structure. Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) had been involved in studying the scattering of alpha particles by sheets of metal and mica. The major experimental indication of the atoms’ structure was Rutherford’s Scattering Experiment. In his model, the atom was a mix of equal numbers of positive and negative charges. Thomson (1856-1940), discoverer of the electron, proposed what we call the "plum pudding model" of the atom. ![]() His atom however was like a solid billiard ball. John Dalton (1766-1844), a great chemist, really started the modern atomic hypothesis. This idea of tiny, indivisible bits of matter persisted until the 1800’s. ![]() The Greek philosopher Democritus (460-370B.C.) conjectured that all things were composed of small, indivisible bits called "atoms," rendered from the Greek atomos meaning "indivisible." Democritus’ atoms came in different sizes and could combine or separate. ![]() The structure of the atom has always been one of the most intriguing areas of physics research. Who first discovered that atoms are made up of other particles and how was this found? July 2002 ![]()
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