History of the Atom

  • John Dalton's Discovery

    John Dalton's Discovery
    John Dalton discovered elements are made up of small particles called atoms. Atoms cannot be created or destroyed. Atoms of a given element are identical in size, mass, and other properties; atoms of different elements differ in size, mass, and other properties.
  • JJ Thomson Discovery

    JJ Thomson Discovery
    Discovered that atoms contain positive and negativly charged particles.
  • Discovery of Rutherford

    Discovery of Rutherford
    Rutherford discovered That atoms have a Nucleus in the middle that contains positively charged particles and the rest of the atom is empty space with electrons scattered throughout.
  • Niels Bohr

    Niels Bohr
    Electrons should move around the nucleus but only in prescribed orbits. When jumping from one orbit to another with lower energy, a light quantum is emitted.
  • Erwin Schrodinger

    Erwin Schrodinger
    He built off of Bohr's model of the atom with the Electron Cloud Model. This model depicts the floating motion of the electrons, rather then them having a set path of travel. He determined the probability location of electrons in atoms. According to Schrodinger, electrons stuck in their orbits would set up "standing waves".
  • James Chadwick

    James Chadwick
    James Chadwick proved the existence of the neutron.