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History of the Atom

  • Democritus
    460

    Democritus

    He hypothesized that everything was made of atoms. He proposed that atoms couldn't be destroyed, differ in size, shape and temperature, are always moving, and are invisible
    (This is supposed to be BC but it wouldn't show up on the timeline)
  • Dalton

    Dalton

    He was the first scientist to explain atoms in terms of measurement and weight
  • Thompson

    Thompson

    He discovered electrons (See Cathode ray tube experiment)
  • Cathode Ray Expirement

    Cathode Ray Expirement

    This was how Thompson discovered electrons
  • Gold Foil Experiment

    Gold Foil Experiment

    Rutherford shot particles at a sheet of gold and figured out that the mass of an atom is concentrated at their center
  • Rutherford

    Rutherford

    He was awarded a nobel prize for his theory of the atomic structure
  • Millikan oil drop experiment

    Millikan oil drop experiment

    This was how Millikan discovered how to determine the size of the charge on an electron by dropping oil into a charged bucket of water to see how strong an electric field needs to be to slow the oil drop
  • Bohr

    Bohr

    He proposed that electrons are on a fixed orbit around the nucleus
  • Electron Cloud Model

    Electron Cloud Model

    Schrodinger discovered that electrons moved around the nucleus in a cloud like shape with no fixed orbit