11 Chemistry

THE ATOMIC THEORY BY JOHN DALTON

REAL WORLD APPLICATIONS OF THE ATOMIC THEORY

Based on the discovery of the Atomic

Theory, Nuclear Fission and Fusion
experiments were carried out and
controlled in Nuclear Plants. Atomic
bombs were developed for both war and
peace. Atomic Theory contributed to
revolution in the field of Quantum
Physics. A pure gold necklace is made up
of atoms. A pure gold and a pure silver
necklace are different because they have
different atoms.
Timeline of the Atomic Theory

Democritus ~450 BC — He claimed that matter was made

( Greek philosopher ) of small,hard particles that he called “atoms”

John Dalton 1803 — Viewed atoms as tiny, solid, balls

( English school teacher )

Michael Faraday 1839 — The structure of atoms is somehow

( English chemist ) related to electricity

J.J Thomson 1896 — His atomic model was known as the

( English physicist ) “raisin bun model”

Robert Millikan 1909 — Measured the charge of an electron

( American physicist University of Chicago )

Ernest Rutherford 1909 — He showed that atoms have ( + )

( New Zealand scientist ) particles in the center, and are mostly empty
space
 Timeline of the Atomic Theory cont.

Henry Mosley 1887 - 1915 — Each element contains a unique

( English scientist Rutherford student ) number of protons

Niels Bohr 1911 — He proposed that electrons move around

( Danish physicist ) the nucleus in specific layers, or shells.

Louis de Broglie & Schrödinger 1924 — Electrons can act like particles and
( French graduate student ) waves
 John Dalton
John Dalton was born on September 5th, 1766 in Eaglesfield, Cumberland. He was
an English meteorologist and chemist as well as a pioneer in the development of
the modern atomic theory. in 1793, Dalton moved to Manchester to teach
mathematics at a dissenting academy, the New college. He took with him the proof
sheets of his first book, a collection of essay on meteorological topics based on his
own observations together with those of his friends John Gough and Peter
Crosthwaite. This work, Meteorological Observations and Essays, was published in
1793. Dalton was well placed to observe various meteorological phenomena. He
upheld the view, against contemporary opinion, that the atmosphere was a physical
mixture of approximately 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen rather than being a specific
compound of elements. He measured the air's ability to absorb water vapour as
well as the variation of its partial pressure with temperature. He defined partial
pressure in terms of a physical law in which every constituent in a gas mixture
exerted the same pressure as if it were the only gas present. Dalton was hailed as
the "Father of Meteorology" by one of his contemporaries, the British scientist John
Frederic Daniell.
 John Dalton
Dalton was elected a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
soon after his arrival in Manchester. His first contribution to this society was a
description of the flaw in his and his brother's vision that he had discovered. This
paper was the first to be published on colour blindness, which was known as
Daltonism for a time. Dalton's atomic theory was by far his most influential work in
chemistry. Attempts to trace Dalton's development of this theory have failed; even
Dalton's own recollections on the subject are incomplete. He based his partial
pressure theory on the idea that only like atoms in a gas mixture repel one another,
whereas unlike atoms appear to react indifferently to one another. This model
explained why each gas in a mixture behaved differently. Although this viewpoint was
later proven to be incorrect, it served a useful purpose in allowing him to abandon the
notion, held by many previous atomists from the Greek philosopher Democritus to the
18th-century mathematician and astronomer Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich, that
atoms of all kinds of matter are the same. Dalton claimed that atoms of different
elements differ in size and mass, and this claim is central to his atomic theory. His
claim that each element had its own type of atom seemed counterintuitive to those
who believed that having so many different fundamental particles would destroy
nature's simplicity, but Dalton dismissed their concerns as fanciful. Instead, he
concentrated on determining the relative masses of various types of atoms, a
process he claimed could only be accomplished by taking into account the number of
atoms of each element present in various chemical compounds. Dalton had been
teaching chemistry for several years but had not yet conducted actual research in
this field.
Model