Atomic Model Timeline

  • Democritus
    430 BCE

    Democritus

    He said that atoms were uniform, solid, hard incompressible and indestructible and that they moved in infinite numbers through empty space until stopped.
  • Period: 430 BCE to

    The Atomic Theory Progression

  • Plato
    427 BCE

    Plato

    He said solid form of matter are composed of invisible elements shaped like triangles.
  • Solar System Model
    330 BCE

    Solar System Model

    It describes atoms as consisting of a nucleus with a number of electrons in orbits around that nucleus.
  • The Alchemists
    500

    The Alchemists

    The Alchemists believed that all metals were formed from two principles - mercury and sulfur.
  • Robert Boyle

    Robert Boyle

    Robert Boyle believed that every thing was composed of very tiny particles.
  • Antone Lavoisier

    Antone Lavoisier

    He said that matter was composed of atoms that were not created or destroyed during chemical reactions.
  • John Dalton

    John Dalton

    He said that all matter is made of atoms, which are indivisible.
  • Amedeo Avogadro

    Amedeo Avogadro

    He said that equal volumes of gas contain equal numbers of molecules and that elementary gases such as hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen were composed of two atoms.
  • Billiard Ball Model

    Billiard Ball Model

    It shows an atom to be a ball-like structure, as the concepts of atomic nucleus and electrons were unknown at the time.
  • Dmitri Mendeleev

    Dmitri Mendeleev

    He said elements arranged according to the value of their atomic weights present a clear periodicity of properties.
  • JJ Thompson

    JJ Thompson

    He said all atoms contain tiny negatively charged subatomic particles or electrons.
  • Neils Bohr

    Neils Bohr

    He said that some physical quantities only take discrete values.
  • Henry G. J. Moseley

    Henry G. J. Moseley

    He said the frequency of x-ray radiation has a precise mathematical relationship to an elements atomic number.
  • Pierre and Marie Curie

    Pierre and Marie Curie

    They discovered the strongly radioactive elements polonium and radium.
  • Plum Pudding Model

    Plum Pudding Model

    It shows negatively-charged electrons embedded within a positively charged soup.
  • Albert Einstein

    Albert Einstein

    He said any liquid is made of molecules.
  • Robert Millikan

    Robert Millikan

    He said electrons have a fixed measurable charge that does not vary.
  • Ernest Lutherford

    Ernest Lutherford

    He described the atom as having a tiny, dense, and positively charged core called the nucleus.
  • Erwin Schrödinger

    Erwin Schrödinger

    He said the behavior of electrons within atoms could be explained by treating them mathematically as matter waves.
  • Werner Heisenberg

    Werner Heisenberg

    He posited that the way and how the electrons moved was more in a cloud formation, and with the uncertainty principle, he could only predict where an electron might be at any given time.
  • Electron Cloud Model

    Electron Cloud Model

    It represents the area around an atoms nucleus where electrons are most likely to be found.
  • James Chadwick

    James Chadwick

    He said that atoms consisted of protons and electrons and another sub-atomic particle called the neutron.