Atomic Model Timeline

  • 400 BCE

    Democritus

    made an atomic theory that states that everything is made up of infinite atoms that are indivisible and indestructible. He notes that between atoms include empty space as well.
  • 387 BCE

    Plato

    made another atomic theory that atoms are in different geometric forms and are broken down into triangles.
  • 338 BCE

    Aristotle

    hadn't believed in the atomic theory and concluded that the world was made up of four elements: fire, air, water, and earth.
  • The Solar System model
    330 BCE

    The Solar System model

    Aristotle also believed the Earth was the center of everything that exist with the sun revolving around.
  • 400

    The Alchemists

    developed a theory about forming common resources like copper into silver and gold. The actual date Alchemists existed was from 400-1400 AD. They also were finding a way to extend life.
  • Robert Boyle

    created a definition for elements that mean any substance broken into two or more substances is not an element, which lead on to prove Aristotle's theory about the four elements to not be true.
  • Lavoisier

    made the law of conservation of mass due to his experiment of the mass size of products and reactants being the same.
  • John Dalton

    created Atomism: ways to calculate atomic mass and the structure of an atom. He also created partial pressure to calculate the pressure of gases combined.
  • Solid Sphere of "Billiard Ball" model

    Solid Sphere of "Billiard Ball" model

    John Dalton chose the name because he believed the atoms were spheres that were hard and solid, like a billiard ball. He also believed that atoms were the smallest particles of matter.
  • Dmitri Mendeleev

    created the periodic table and created the symbols for each elements. The elements were put in order by higher atomic mass.
  • J.J. Thomson

    discovered the electron and proposed that each atom has a negative charge by it. He created the "Plum Pudding" model as well to show how the electrons work.
  • The "Plum Pudding" model

    The "Plum Pudding" model

    Made by J.J. Thomson, this version of the atom had a positive charge medium with negative electrons within. The name was given for the electrons were like plums inside the pudding, which would be the medium.
  • The Curies

    Pierre and Marie Curie, discovered radium and polonium and some solutions to treating certain cancers.
  • Albert Einstein

    had developed the theory of relativity, giving the understanding of our space and time throughout the universe. In atomic theory, he made the "E=mc2 model", meaning "Energy equals mass times light's speed squared" and proposed that mass is unchangeable.
  • Robert Millikan

    was credited for his discovery for the electron's negative charge and for the verification of Einstein's light frequency with electrons theory.
  • Ernest Rutherford

    created the nuclear structure of the atom and made the theory of radioactive half-life, the time it takes for atoms to split and how long unstable atoms live for.
  • Neils Bohr

    decided that electrons should circle around the atom and should transfer energy at different quantities.
  • Henry G. J. Mosely

    created the atomic number to depict an atom's protons. This also told of how many neutrons were in an atom.
  • Werner Heisenberg

    came up with the idea that atoms are unknown of their approximate location. This idea is called the Uncertainty principle. The principle is plays a major part in the Quantum Theory.
  • Electron Cloud model

    Electron Cloud model

    Werner Heisenberg developed this model to determine the where electrons can be found mostly around an atom.