Dalton's Atomic Theory

GENERAL
CHEMISTRY
1 Presented by:
Ms. Katherine R. Campillos, LPT
 TOPIC OUTLINE:
atomic theory atomic number and
Mass Number

the Subatomic Isotopes

particles
 OBJECTIVES:
• Identify the main points of Dalton’s atomic theory.
• Describe the structure of the atom in terms of protons,
neutrons, and electrons and express the relative electrical
charges and masses of these subatomic particles.
• Use chemical symbols together with atomic number and
mass number to express the subatomic composition of
isotopes.
• Calculate the atomic weight of an element from the masses
of individual atoms and a knowledge of natural abundances.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF ATOMIC THEORY

John
English meteorologist and
Dalton
chemist
atomic theory
SUBATOMIC
PARTICLES
 proto
n
electro
n
neutro
n
 ELECTRO
N
lectrons were discovered by Sir John Joseph Thomson in 1897
 PROTON
Protons were discovered by Ernest Rutherford in the year 1919,
when he performed his gold foil experiment. He projected alpha
particles (helium nuclei) at gold foil, and the positive alpha
particles were deflected. He concluded that protons exist in a
nucleus and have a positive nuclear charge. The atomic number or
proton number is the number of protons present in an atom. The
atomic number determines an element
 NEUTRON
Neutrons were discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, when he
demonstrated that penetrating radiation incorporated beams of neutral
particles. Neutrons are located in the nucleus with the protons. Along with
protons, they make up almost all of the mass of the atom. The number of
neutrons is called the neutron number and can be found by subtracting the
proton number from the atomic mass number. The neutrons in an element
determine the isotope of an atom, and often its stability. The number of
neutrons is not necessarily equal to the number of protons.
ATOMIC NUMBER AND
MASS NUMBER
Atoms of each element contain a characteristic number
of protons. In fact, the number of protons determines what
atom we are looking at (e.g., all atoms with six protons are
carbon atoms)
 atomic
number
the number of protons in an
atom
 atomic mass
Together, the number of protons and the number of neutrons
determine an element’s mass number
mass number = protons +
neutrons
If you want to calculate how many neutrons an atom has, you can
simply subtract the number of protons, or atomic number, from the
mass number.
 Isotopes
are atoms with the same number of protons but differing numbers of
neutrons. In other words, isotopes have different atomic
weights/mass. Isotopes are different forms of a single element.

Key Takeaways: Isotopes

Isotopes are samples of an element with different numbers of neutrons
in their atoms.
The number of protons for different isotopes of an element does not
change.
where do isotopes come from?