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Period: 400 to
atom history
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450
Democritus
In around 450BC Democritus of Greece discovered that all matter is made of smaller particles know as atoms. He claimed that these atoms were invisible and were tiny in size.
Years later the great Aristotle came up with the method of gathering facts for sceince reasearch. These methods then proved scientific work. -
Lavoisier
Lavoisier was the first to distinguish the difference bewteen what an element and a compund is. Also his main law he discovered was that matter could not be created or destroyed but only changed -
John Dalton
John Daltion was the man that basically developed what Democritus had previoulsy tried to explain to the world. John Dalton said that matter was made of small particles known as atoms and all had the same weight, This was corrected later on. He also understood that when elements combine together there are fixed proportions. Eg 1 hydrogen and 2 oxygen. -
Henri becquerel
Henri becquerul was using uranium and discovered that it could be exposed through a photographic plate and black paper. He had discovered radioacticity. He then decided that this was due to the urunium atom. He stopped his work there and this was further picked up by Marie and Pierre Currie -
The Curies
Pierre had already made a name for himself for it was Pierre and Marie made the major discovery. Togther they studied in radioactivity and discovered two new elements know as radium and polonium. They also discovered that the element Thorium was actaully radioactive. Marie Curie won the Nobel Price in Physics and Chemisitry for her and her husbands work. Unfortunatly Pierre had died. -
JJ Thompson
Till Joesph John Thompson's discovery scientists believed that atoms were invisible. JJ Thompson proved this therory was wrong as he discovered that atoms contain smaller particles known as electrons. However he called them corpuscles. JJ model of the atom. -
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein. Known to be the father of modern Science discovered the famous E=Mc2 and also discovered photons. People believed that light travelled or moved in waves however Einstein proved that energy behaves like discreate particles, He called this photons -
Ernest RutherFord
Ernest RutherFord made a large contribution to the discovery of the atom as he and some students discovered the nucleus. Whilst doing an experiement using gold they found that the postitve and negactive charges of the atom must go somewhere. That somewhere was the nucleus. They then discovered that the nucleas was a postivte judge thus making the electrons outside the nucleus. -
Niels Bohr
Niels Bohr had made many contributions to the understanding of the atom. He created what is known as the bohr model which shows that electrons orbit around the nucleus. At the time this was a break through but now is taught to introduce people to the structure of the atom. -
James Chadwick
James Chadwick had discovered an unknown particle part of the atom. The neutron had been discovered.
