Atomic Model Timeline

  • The Alchemists
    500 BCE

    The Alchemists

    They developed the theory that all metals are composed of mercury and that you change metals into gold. They broke down the 4 elements Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water.
  • Aristotle
    450 BCE

    Aristotle

    Aristotle did not believe in the atomic theory. He thought that that the materials on earth were made up out of the 4 elements.
  • Plato
    428 BCE

    Plato

    Plato believed that there exists an immaterial Universe of forms.The objects and ideas in our material world are shadows of the forms.
  • Democritus
    400 BCE

    Democritus

    Democritus introduced the idea of the atom as the basic building block matter. He thought that all atoms are small, and that the atoms are surrounded by empty space and moving all the time randomly. He suggested that all matter was formed of different types of discrete particles and that the properties were determined by properties of matter.
  • The Solar System
    330 BCE

    The Solar System

    The Bohr or solar system model of the atom states that atoms consist of a nucleus with a number of electrons in orbit around that nucleus.
  • Robert Boyle

    Robert Boyle

    Robert discovered that the volume of gas decreases with increasing pressure or either or. It was known as Boyle's law.
  • Lavioiser

    Lavioiser

    He determined that oxygen was a key substance in combustion, and he gave the element his name. Through a series of experiments Lavoisier found that the total mass of products and reactants in a chemical reactions is always the same. This led to the theory of the law of conservation of mass.
  • Solid Sphere of "Billiard Ball" Model

    Solid Sphere of "Billiard Ball" Model

    The Solid Sphere was founded by John Dalton.Since he thought the atoms were so small, he envisioned them as solid spheres. He used wooden balls to model them.
  • John Dalton

    John Dalton

    He proposed that all matter is made of tiny invisible particles, he imagined them as solid, messy, and hard moveable particles.
  • Dimitri Mendeleev

    Dimitri Mendeleev

    Mendeleev found that when all the known chemical elements were arranged in order of increasing atomic weight.
  • J.J Thompson

    J.J Thompson

    His experiments with cathode ray tubes showed that all atoms contain tiny negatively charged subatomic particles or electrons.
  • The Curies

    The Curies

    Marie and Pierre Curie successfully isolate radioactive radium salts from the mineral pitchblende in a laboratory in Paris. They discovered the existence of the elements radium and polonium in their research of pitchblende.
  • Plum Pudding Model

    Plum Pudding Model

    Thomson's Model showed an atom that had a positive charge medium and it has negatively charged electrons. His experiment with cathode ray tubes showed that all atoms contain tiny negative charged subatomic particles or electrons.
  • Albert Einstein

    Albert Einstein

    Einstein mathematically proved the existence of atoms. Einstein explained the photoelectric effect. He showed that when quanta of light energy strikes atoms in the meta. The quanta force the atoms to release electrons. Einstein's work helped justify the quantum theory.
  • Robert Milikan

    Robert Milikan

    He succeeded in precisely determining the magnitude of the electron's charge.
  • Ernest Rutherford

    Ernest Rutherford

    He postulated the nuclear structure of the atom. He discovered alpha and beta rays and proposed the laws of radioactive decay. He believed that the mass and positive charge were concentrated in a small region called the nucleus.
  • Neils Bohr

    Neils Bohr

    Neils Bohr made a theory for the hydrogen atom based on quantum theory that energy is transferred only in well defined areas. He discovered that electrons should move around the nucleus, but only in prescribed orbits. When jumping from one orbit to another with lower energy, a light quantum is emitted.
  • Henry J. Mosely

    Henry J. Mosely

    He observed and measured the X-ray spectra of various chemical elements from crystals. He discovered a systematic relation wave length and atomic number. It is Mosely's law.
  • Electron Cloud Model

    Electron Cloud Model

    The electron Cloud Model was developed by Erwin Schrodinger and Werner Heisenberg. It was consisted of a dense nucleus surrounded by cloud of electrons at certain levels.They determined regions mathematically in which electrons would most likely be found.
  • Werner Heisenberg

    Werner Heisenberg

    He was a German physicist and philosopher who discovered a way to formulate quantum mechanics in the terms of matrices. He discovered the uncertainty principle, which states that a particle's position and momentum cannot both be known exactly.