History of the Atom Project

By zacharywhitham

  • John Dalton

    John Dalton
    John Dalton made the discovery that each type of matter has one type of atom, and that these atoms can't be created, destroyed, or broken apart. This means that in each type of matter you can't destroy, create, or break the atoms up. This discovery is important because it was the very first atomic theory and was the basis for many theories later on.

  • Dmitri Meendeleev

    Dmitri Meendeleev
    Dmitri Meendeleev's discovery was the most modern version of the periodic table. The periodic table is an arangement of the elements. His version of the table stuck because he could use it to predict elements that hadn't been discovered yet. This discovery is important because it is the periodic table we use today.

  • J.J. Thomson

    J.J. Thomson
    J.J. Thomson made the discovery that atoms have negatively charged particles called electrons. Since scientists knew that atoms had no charge, he reasoned that there must be a positive charge also in the atom. This means the positive and negative charged particles cancel out and there is no charge in the atom. This is important because he was the first to theorize that particles could be charged.

  • Earnest Rutherford

    Earnest Rutherford
    Earnest Rutherford made the discovery of the nucleus and in later research found out that there are postively charged particles in the nucleus he called protons. This means that most of the atom is empty space with a dense nucleus in the core. This discovery was important because it was the first atomic theory that had a nucleus in it.

  • Neils Bohr

    Neils Bohr
    Neils Bohr suggested that electrons are found only in specific orbits around the nucleus, and each electron has a fixed energy. This means that each electron moves at set rate and distance and can not exist in the space between. This is important because it was thought to be a new piece of evidence for atomic theoies but was then discared because it was proved wrong.

  • James Chadwick

    James Chadwick
    James Chadwick discovered that another particle existed in the nucleus called the neutron. This particle was hard to find because it has no electrical charge. This discovery is important because it is part of the modern atomic model and is in the core of how the atom operates.