ATOMS

➢ Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass. All matter is made of atoms. Atoms
are the basic building blocks of matter. Atoms are too small to see without microscopes.

➢ ATOMIC PARTS

➢ Proton
Charge: positive (+) Location: Nucleus or “core”
- Have a mass roughly the same as a neutron.
- Protons define an element. It determines the number of electrons, which determines the
properties that mostly define the said element.

➢ Neutron
Charge: No charge (0) Location: Nucleus or “core”
- Have a mass roughly the same as a proton.
- Neutrons are responsible for isotopes. The number of neutrons is variable, resulting in
isotopes.

➢ Electrons
Charge: Negative (-) Location: Electron cloud (the region around the nucleus)
- No real mass but do take up most of the space around an atom (very small mass)
- Smallest subatomic particle
- An electron can move by gaining or losing energy but can never be between energy
levels.
- Electrons are responsible for ions. Ion is an atom or molecule with a net electric charge
due to the loss or gain of one or more electrons. The two types of ions are cations and
anions.
- Cations are positively charged ions (atoms or groups of atoms that have more protons
than electrons due to having lost one or more electrons).
- Anions are negatively charged ions (they have more electrons than protons due to
having gained one or more electrons).
- Energy Levels The energy that an electron has is based on its location around the
nucleus. (Electrons that are closer to the nucleus have less energy than those that are
farther away from the nucleus)
Protons and Neutrons are not fundamental
particles.

Quarks are held together by “Gluons”.

Quark = combination
➢ Atomic Number = number of protons
- In a neutral atom (0 charges), the number of protons = the number of electrons
➢ Neutrons = Mass Number – number of protons
➢ Atomic Mass = number or neutrons + number of protons

CHANGING PART
So, if the atomic mass is equal to the sum of protons and neutrons, why isn’t the mass a
whole number on all Periodic Tables of the Elements?
- Even though an atom must have a certain number of protons, the number of neutrons
can vary slightly. These different versions of the same atom are called… Isotopes

➢ Isotopes
- The number of protons can never change but the number of neutrons can change.
Isotopes are atoms of the same element but with a different number of neutrons.
- If we add an extra neutron to a nucleus we simply end up with the same element, just
a little heavier, since the charge of the nucleus would be unchanged.
- An isotope is identified by its mass number.
How can you tell isotopes of the same element apart?
- The Different mass numbers and neutrons.

➢ Average Atomic Mass

- Most elements have more than one isotope, each element has an average atomic
mass.
- Average atomic mass: the weighted average of the mass of the mixture of its isotopes.
It is the weighted average of all the naturally occurring isotopes of the element.
- The average atomic mass for each element is listed in the periodic table.

➢ Atomic Mass
➢ The nucleus contains most of the mass of the atom.
➢ Protons and neutrons are far more massive than electrons
➢ The mass of a proton and a neutron is almost 1 atomic mass unit (AMU)
 ATOMIC THEORY
Where did the atom start?
➢ It comes from the idea/plan/suggestion of one person. Then, it became a theory (a set
of ideas from two or more people who are related to the founding of an atom).
➢ Leucippus, a Greek philosopher, developed the theory of atomism, which posited that
the whole universe is made up of atoms constantly moving through the void, or empty
space. Leucippus’s theory was developed even further by his pupil, Democritus.
➢ Atom comes from the Greek word “Atomos” which means not able to be divided or
indivisible. The word Atomos comes from the Greek Philosopher, Democritus.

Exploration about elements:

➢ Four Greek philosophers and Alchemists believed that all matter came from 4
elements (water, air, fire, earth)
➢ Thales believed that water is the essence of all matter.
➢ Anaximenes believed that air is the source of all things.
➢ Heraclitus believed that fire forms the basic material principle of an orderly universe.
➢ Empedocles believed that all matter comes from the earth (rock and solid).

➢ Paracelsus, an Alchemist, believed that matter is made up of 3 principles (salt, sulfur,

and mercury)

➢ Paracelsus’ theory was rejected by Robert Boyle. Robert is a natural philosopher,

physicist, and inventor. He is considered the founder of modern chemistry.

➢ An alchemist is a group of people that have many sayings and theories about things.
They fight for their beliefs and reasonings. They are people who study alchemy.

This phase of discovering the atom is important in the present because it gives the way
for many philosophers and scientists to keep on discovering deeper about the atom
and its particles.
 Atomic Theory

EARLY THEORY
➢ Aristotle – all matter flows continuously and is composed of 4 elements (fire, air,
water, earth).
➢ Democritus disagreed with Aristotle and said that matter was made of small units
called “Atomos” and was indivisible. Aristotle was more popular than Democritus,
so this theory was ignored for over 2,000 years.
o He concludes that there was a limit to how far you could divide matter. You would
eventually end up with a piece of matter that could not be cut. He thought
matter is like motion. It cannot be divided in half forever.
➢ He proposed about atom:
▪ Atoms are small hard particles.
▪ Made of a single material that’s formed into different shapes and sizes.
▪ They are always moving
▪ They form different materials by joining together.

MODERN THEORY
➢ John Dalton 1776 – 1884
o He brings back the idea of Democritus.
o He performed many experiments to study how elements join to form new
substances. He found that they combine in specific ratios (remember the
electrolysis of water), and he supposed it was because the elements are made
of atoms.
o He made the billiard ball model. Dalton concludes that the atom is a circle like a
billiard ball. He said that an atom is only an empty space, has no parts, and has
no structures.
➢ Three new ideas that John Dalton proposed:
▪ All substances are made up of atoms which are small particles that cannot
be created, divided, or destroyed.
▪ Atoms of the same element are exactly alike, and atoms of different
elements are different.
▪ Atoms join with other atoms to form different substances

Billiard Ball Model

➢ J.J. Thomson 1856-1940
o J.J. Thomson did an experiment called “Thomson’s Cathode Ray Experiment”. In
this experiment, a stream of electrons is attracted to a positively charged plate here.
o Through his experiment, he discovered that atoms are made of smaller negatively
charged particles called electrons.

Thomson’s Cathode
Ray Experiment
➢ The Plum Pudding Model
o He didn’t know how electrons
were arranged. He believed
they were mixed throughout an
atom. He proposed that the
atom was a sphere of positively
charged material that holds
the electron. The electrons
were spread throughout the
atom like the plum in a
pudding or chocolate chips in
cookies.

➢ Ernest Rutherford (1871 – 1937)

o He was a student of J.J. Thomson but disagreed with Plum Pudding Model.
o Awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of alpha particles,
positively charged particles emitted from radioactive elements. He named it
Proton.
o Devised an experiment to investigate the structure of positive and negative
charges in the atom.
➢ Rutherford’s Revised Atomic Theory (1911)
o Most of the positive charge went straight through the gold foil. (Most of the
matter of an atom are found in a very small and extremely dense particle
called Nucleus)
o Some of the positively charged particles were deflected or even bounced
back. (Like charges repel so the Nucleus must have a positive charge. If
electrons have a negative charge, they could not be in a nucleus with a
positive charge. They must be around the nucleus. Electrons must be scattered
in an empty space)
 o The diameter of the Nucleus is 100,000x smaller than the diameter of the entire
atom gold. (Atom is mostly empty space with a tiny, massive Nucleus at the
center)

Gold Foil Experiment Peach Model

➢ Neil Bohr
➢ Bohr proposed that electrons move in paths at certain distances around the
nucleus at certain energy levels.
➢ Electrons can jump from a path on one level to a path on another level.
➢ He compared the structure of an atom and the solar system. Electrons (planets)
move around the nucleus (sun) in the shell (orbit). The difference between the
atom and a solar system is, there is only one planet for one orbit but there are
numbers of electrons in a shell revolving around the nucleus.

➢ Modern Theory
➢ Electrons do not orbit the nucleus in a neat planet-like orbit but move at high
speeds in a region called Electron Cloud around the Nucleus.
➢ You cannot predict exactly where an electron will be found.