Atomic Theory Timeline

  • Period: 600 BCE to

    Development of the Atomic Theory

  • The Alchemists
    500 BCE

    The Alchemists

    Created 4 elements, air, earth, fire, and water, which they thought they could combine to form gold. In addition, these elements helped create the periodic table.
  • Plato
    428 BCE

    Plato

    Proposed 5th type of atom called ether and heavenly objects are composed of it.
  • Democritus
    400 BCE

    Democritus

    Theorized that everything is made out of atoms, which are tiny and indestructible, and that your soul was also made out of these.
  • Robert Boyle

    Robert Boyle

    Defined that an element could not be broken down, and proposed that all substances were made of something like an atom.
  • Antoine Lavoisier

    Antoine Lavoisier

    Discovered through experimentation, that reactants and mass in a chemical reaction stay the same.
  • John Dalton

    John Dalton

    Proposed all matter is made up of atoms, atoms are indivisible, indestructible, all atoms of an element have the same properties, and that atoms of different elements hold different mass.
  • Billiard Ball Model

    Billiard Ball Model

    Model created by John Dalton showing how Dalton thought atoms were tiny hard balls that have no internals
  • Amadeo Avagadro

    Amadeo Avagadro

    Proposed the idea that equal volumes of gases at the same temperature and pressure hold equal amounts of molecules.
  • Dmitri Mendeleev

    Dmitri Mendeleev

    Created the periodic table by arranging elements in order of atomic number in groups.
  • JJ Thompson

    JJ Thompson

    Discovered the electron and their charge to mass ratio of electrons after experimenting with cathode ray tubes.
  • Pierre and Marie Curie

    Pierre and Marie Curie

    Discovered radioactivity doesn't rely on the arrangements of atoms but the atoms themselves. The pair also discovered the elements radium and polonium.
  • Plum Pudding Model

    Plum Pudding Model

    A model created by JJ Thompson which presents a negatively charged electrons inside a positively charged sphere.
  • Albert Einstein

    Albert Einstein

    Used mathematics and his theory of relativity to prove the existence of atoms.
  • Robert Millikan

    Robert Millikan

    Proposed electricity came in the form of tiny units called electrons. Also succeeded in determining the charge of an electron.
  • Ernest Rutherford

    Ernest Rutherford

    Disproved Thompson theory by showing atoms are mostly made of empty space. He did this by firing alpha rays at a sheet of gold foil.
  • Neils Bohr

    Neils Bohr

    Proposed for the hydrogen atom, that electron energy levels are discrete and revolve in steady orbits.
  • Solar System Model

    Solar System Model

    A model created by Neils Bohr that shows a nucleus made up of neutrons and protons, surrounded by electrons in orbits.
  • Henry G. J. Moseley

    Henry G. J. Moseley

    Found that the difference between elements is the number of protons, which means the number of protons decides the atomic number.
  • Erwin Schrodinger

    Erwin Schrodinger

    Created a wave equation that allowed you to find the energy levels of electrons in atoms, using the assumption matter is classified as particles and waves.
  • Electron Cloud Model

    Electron Cloud Model

    Model created by Erwin Schrodinger which shows a nucleus in the middle, and an electron cloud surrounding it.
  • Heisenburg

    Heisenburg

    Discovered uncertainty principle, which says a particles momentum and exact position are unknown.
  • James Chadwick

    James Chadwick

    Discovered neutron after launching alpha particles at beryllium atoms and a strong unknown radiation was produced.