Atomic Theory

  • 400 BCE

    Democritus

    His mentor, Leucippus, originally came up with the atomic theory, but it was then adopted by Democritus.
  • 350 BCE

    Aristotle

    All matter composed of 4 elements, earth, air, fire, water.
  • Antoine Lavoisier

    Recent invention of balance, he did a lot of quantitative measurement. Lead him to law of conservation of mass- states mass cannot be created nor destroyed. Mass of reactants will equal mass products.
  • Joseph Proust

    He first published his Law of Definite Proportions, this says that the law states that the same elements in exactly the same proportions by mass
  • John Dalton

    English chemist school teacher. Law of multiple proportions- if compounds of the same elements, the masses of the elements can be expressed as ratios of whole numbers.
    1. All matter is composed of extremely small particles
    2. Atoms of a given element are identical in size, mass, & other properties, atoms of different elements differ in size
    3. Atoms cannot be divided,created,or ruined
    4. Atoms combine in whole # ratios to form
    5. Atoms are combined, separated, or rearranged in chemical reactions
  • JJ Thomson

    credited with the discovery and identification that the electron had a negative charge. chocolate chip cookie
  • Robert Millikan

    oil drop experiment, figured out mass of electrons
  • Ernest Rutherford

    gold foil experimen, nucleus- very small & very dense. positive charge part was a proton
  • Niels Bohr

    The discoveries of the electron and radioactivity at the end of the 19th century led to different models for the structure of the atom
  • Schrodiner & Heisnberg

    physicists were trying to apply Planck's concept of energy quanta to the atom and its constituents
  • James Chadwick

    worked with rutherford, discovered the neutron