Welcome to

PHYSICAL SCIENCE!

CARLO JAMES Q. SABLAN

Science Teacher
Modern Theories
on Development
of Atom
 “What can be
asserted without
evidence can be
dismissed without
evidence.”
Christopher Hitchens
 Objectives:
►Discuss key developments in the
concept of the atomic structure in
modern chemistry;
►Present a timeline of events leading to
the discovery of modern ideas on
atom; and,
►Appreciate the importance of
experiments and evidence-based facts.
 Modern Chemistry
► Beginnings of modern chemistry were seen
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
where great advances were made in
metallurgy, the extraction of metals from
ores.
► In the seventeenth century, Boyle defined
an element as a substance that cannot be
broken down into two or more simpler
substances by chemical means.
 Modern Chemistry
Robert Boyle
stated...
►A substance was an element
unless it could be broken
down to two or more simpler
substances.
► Air, therefore, could not be
an element because it could
be broken down into many
pure substances.
Robert Boyle
 Modern Chemistry
► During the eighteenth century, Priestley discovered
oxygen gas and the process of combustion where
carbon-containing materials burn vigorously in an
oxygen atmosphere.
► In the late eighteenth century, Lavoisier wrote the
first modern chemistry text. His most important
contribution was the law of conservation of mass,
which states that in any chemical reaction, the
mass of the substances that react equals the mass
of the products that are formed. He is known as
the father of modern chemistry.
Modern Chemistry

Joseph Antoine
Priestley Lavoisier
 John Dalton (1766 – 1844)
►A meteorologist
►Unlike Democritus, he
had experimental
evidence to support his
theory.
►Dalton had four major
points (postulates) to
his theory.
John Dalton’s Atomic Theory 1804
1. All matter is made of indivisible atoms.
2. Atoms of one element are all the same. The
atoms of any one element are different from
those of another.
3. Chemical reactions occur when atoms separate,
join, or rearrange. In a chemical reaction, atoms
of one element NEVER change into another.
4. Atoms of different elements mix or combine in
whole number ratios to form compounds.
Example: Oxygen combines with hydrogen to
form water in a 2:1 ratio.
 Dalton’s Early
Atomic Model
“Billiard Ball” Model
► He envisioned atoms as solid, hard spheres,
like billiard (pool) balls; so, he used
wooden balls to model them.
Joseph John Thomson
(1859 – 1940)
➢ Discovered the
electron
➢ He was the first
scientist to show
the atom was
made of even
smaller things.
Cathode Ray Tube Experiment
►Used the
Cathode ray
tube to
discover
electrons
Thomson’s Experiment
Voltage source
- +

Vacuum tube

Metal Disks
Thomson’s Experiment
Voltage source
- +

Passing an electric current makes a

beam appear to move from the
negative to the positive end
Thomson’s Experiment
Voltage source
+

- -
Adding an electric field cause the beam to
move toward the positive plate.
Thomson concluded the beam was made of
negative moving pieces (opposites attract).
 Thomson’s “Plum Pudding”
Atom Model
From his experimental evidence, he believed
that the atom was a solid positive sphere
with electrons shoved into the sides of it.
 Eugene Goldstein
(1850-1930)
Using a cathode ray tube he discovered
canal rays which are beams of positively
charged particles.
He is credited with the discovery of
protons in an atom.
 Ernest Rutherford
(1871 – 1937)

• Discovered the
nucleus of a
gold atom with
his “gold foil”
experiment
Gold Foil Experiment Results
Most alpha
particles go
straight
through the
gold foil. A
few alpha
particles are
sharply
deflected.
 Rutherford’s Conclusions
Observations Conclusions
Most of the alpha The atom is mostly
particles went. empty space

The alpha particle came

Few particles were close to something small
deflected at small angles. and positive (nucleus)
The alpha particles hit a
Very rarely particles were small, very dense, and
deflected at large angles. positively charged center
(nucleus)
Rutherford’s Atomic Model
 Neils Bohr (1885 – 1962)
➢ Bohr proposed
that the electrons
existed only at
fixed distances
from the nucleus
at set “energy
levels,” or
quanta.
In the Bohr model of
the atom, electrons
travel in defined
circular orbits
around the nucleus.
Electrons can jump
from one orbit to
another by emitting
or absorbing energy.
 Quantum Mechanics
►This branch augmented the Bohr
model with new explanations of how
matter behaved at a very tiny level that
turned it into the quantum model of
the atom used today.
► The model is based on mathematical
equations by several scientists, including
Werner Heisenberg and Ernest
Schrödinger.
 Quantum Mechanics

Werner Heisenberg Erwin Schrodinger

 Quantum Model
► Instead of orbits,
there were orbitals or
regions of space with
high probability of
finding electrons.
These are sometimes
known as electron
clouds or electron
subshells whose
shapes are described
by complex wave
equations.
 James Chadwick
(1891 – 1974)
►James Chadwick
was a student of
Rutherford’s who
built on this
possibility of having
another particle in
the nucleus.
 James Chadwick (1891 – 1974)
► These particles were as heavy as protons,
but they needed to have a neutral charge
that would allow them to smash into the
nucleus without being repelled by electrons
or protons. He confirmed their existence by
measuring their mass and called them
neutrons.
► The neutron was able to explain the mass
unaccounted for by a system of protons and
electrons only. It also allowed for more far-
reaching advancements in nuclear physics
and chemistry.