History of The Atom Essay

Research Project: Modelling the atom
Ideas about atoms have changed over time. As scientists collected new experimental evidence, they
have developed new atomic models.
Around 400 BC, Greek Philosophers Democritus and Leucippus suggested that if we go on dividing
matter, a stage will come when particles obtained cannot be divided further. Democritus called these
indivisible particles atoms (meaning indivisible). All this was based on philosophical considerations and
not much experimental work to validate these ideas could be done till the eighteenth century.
However in 1803, British chemist John Dalton provided the basic theory about the nature of matter.
Dalton picked up the idea of divisibility of matter, which was till then just a philosophy. He took the
name ‘atoms’ as given by the Greeks and said that the smallest particles of matter are atoms. His theory
was based on the laws of chemical combination. He gave six postulates which revolved around
properties of atoms of the same as well as different elements1. Soon after, his theory was discarded
because the sub atomic particles were discovered which clashed with Dalton’s theory which stated that
atoms are indivisible.
The first model of the atom was was developed by JJ Thomson in 1904, who thought that atoms were
composed purely of negatively charged electrons. This model was known as the 'plum pudding' model.
In this model, the atom is a ball of positive charge with negative electrons embedded in it 2 . He reached
to this conclusion by the evidence of the results from the cathode ray experiment. To test the properties
of the particles, Thomson placed two oppositely-charged electric plates around the cathode ray. The
cathode ray was deflected away from the negatively-charged electric plate and towards the positively-
charged plate. This indicated that the cathode ray was composed of negatively-charged
particles.Thomson then calculated a charge- mass ratio which explained to us that the mass of this
negatively charged particle is much much smaller than the mass of the whole atom. Even though his
discovery was controversial at first, it was gradually accepted and this negatively charged particle was
given the name of an electron. The discovery of the electron disproved Dalton’s theory. However over
the course of time, this model was rejected because it did not explain the presence of nucleus in an
atom. But it cannot be declined that JJ Thomson has given a valuable contribution to today’s model of
the atom which still recognizes the electrons.
Ernest Rutherford overturned Thomson’s model in 1911 with his famous gold-foil experiment where he
demonstrated that the atom has a tiny nucleus. In the experiment, positively charged alpha
particles were fired at thin gold foil. Most alpha particles went straight through the foil. But a few were
scattered in different directions3.This led to the ‘nucleur’ model which stated that the mass of an atom is
concentrated at the nucleus and the nucleus is positively charged. This led to today’s model which has
positively charged particles called protons. He said that electrons revolve around the nucleus in a
circular path.This did contribute to the knowledge we have about the phenomenon of electrons
revolving around the nucleus in shells.However his major contribution is discovering the proton. Only
with thediscovery of the proton scientists were able to discover atomic number, atomic mass, isotopes
and the list goes on. However, Rutherford’s model ended up with the same fate as the previous ones.
Rutherford's atomic model failed to explain the stability of electrons in a circular path. He stated that
electrons revolve around the nucleus in a circular path, but particles in motion would undergo
acceleration and cause energy radiation. Eventually, electrons should lose energy and fall into the
nucleus.
In 1915,Neils Bohr built upon Rutherford's model to make his own. The Franck-‐Hertz
experiment provided support for the Bohr model of the atom. He explained that electrons move in fixed
orbitals and not anywhere in between and each orbital has a fixed energy. Bohr's model is quite
adequate for describing the chemical properties of an atom. It predicts the correct electronic
configuration of atoms in terms of principal energy shells. The periodic table is arranged in terms of the
atomic number and thus the electronic configuration of elements to explain periodicity in their
properties.Hence his model helps us understand the phenomenon of periodicity. Soon after, his model
was not accepted. The main problem with Bohr's model is that it works very well for atoms with only
one electron, like H or He+, but not at all for multi-electron atoms4. Nowhere did he mention the
existence of subshells or spin of electrons.
In the modern day, an atom consists of three subatomic particles. They are the electron, proton and
neutron. Electrons and protons have electrical charges that are identical in magnitude but opposite
in sign. Relative charges of −1 and +1 are assigned to the electron and proton, respectively.Proton
and neutron have a relative mass of 1 but an electron has negligible mass. Neutrons have
approximately the same mass as protons but no charge. They were discovered by James Chadwick in
1932.They are electrically neutral. The nucleus is in the centre of the atom and has neutrons and
protons which are collectively called nucleons. The nucleus has a radius of about 1/10000 of the
radius of an atom5.Almost the whole mass of the atom is concentrated in the nucleus.
In an electrically neutral atom, number of protons=number of electrons.
- CURRENT MODEL OF ATOM
TIMELINE OF THE ATOMIC MODELS:
DEMOCRITUS JOHN DALTON JJ THOMSON RUTHERFORD BOHR MODERN DAY ATOM
References:
1.Lakhmir Singh,Manjit Kaur(2021), Science for class 9,3rd ed, New Delhi
2. Khan Academy,Discovery of the electron and nucleus (2018):

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry/electronic-structure-of-atoms/history-of-atomic-
structure/a/discovery-of-the-electron-and-nucleus#:~:text=J.J.,positively%2Dcharged%20%22soup.%22
3. Lawrence Badash,Britanicca (2016),’Ernest Rutherford’ Last accessed 18 August 2023:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ernest-Rutherford/McGill-University
4.Wiki Books, ‘High school Chemistry/The Bohr Model’ Last accessed 17 October 2022:
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/High_School_Chemistry/The_Bohr_Model#:~:text=Bohr's%20model
%20failed%20because%20it,as%20tiny%20as%20the%20electron.
5. CGP Books(2021), ‘GCSE AQA Chemistry’, Newcastle, UK

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Research Project: Modelling the atom

- CURRENT MODEL OF ATOM

TIMELINE OF THE ATOMIC MODELS:

DEMOCRITUS JOHN DALTON JJ THOMSON RUTHERFORD BOHR MODERN DAY ATOM

2. Khan Academy,Discovery of the electron and nucleus (2018):

3. Lawrence Badash,Britanicca (2016),’Ernest Rutherford’ Last accessed 18 August 2023:

5. CGP Books(2021), ‘GCSE AQA Chemistry’, Newcastle, UK

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