History of the Atom

Timeline
• Use the info sheets around the room to make a timeline for the
history of the atom.
Democritus – 400 B.C.

• Democritus said that if you were to cut something in half over and
over again eventually you would be left with something too small to
be cut.

• Democritus gave us the word “Atomos”, or “uncuttable”.

• This is where the word atom came from:

“Atom: The smallest part of an element”
John Dalton - 1808
• John Dalton imagined atoms as tiny spheres.
• All matter is composed of atoms
• Atoms of each element are the same size and mass.
• Atoms of one element are different to atoms of another element
• Atoms can’t be subdivided or destroyed.
J.J Thomson - 1897
• Mr Thomson found out that atoms contained smaller particles called
electrons.
• He also found out that these electrons were negatively charged.
• He imagined an atom as a positively charged sphere with negative
electrons stuck into it.
• He called this “The Plum Pudding” model of the atom

The “Plum Pudding” of negative

electrons stuck in a positive sphere.
Ernest Rutherford - 1911
• Ernest Rutherford wanted to test the plum pudding
model by firing particles at atoms.

• He proposed that the particles should bump into the

positive centre of the pudding and fire off in different
directions.
Rutherford
proved the
• Instead most of the particles passed straight through
plum pudding
the atoms, but a few bumped off at funny angles. model wrong!

• This suggested that atoms are mostly empty space,

except for a very tiny bit in the centre. He called this
the ‘nucleus’ and proposed it was full of positive
particles called ‘protons’.
Niels Bohr - 1913
• Mr Bohr found out that the
electrons in an atom don’t
randomly orbit the nucleus.

• Instead the electrons sit inside Positive nucleus

different ‘energy levels’ (shells)

that surround the nucleus of the
atom. Electrons inside
“Shells” around
the nucleus
James Chadwick - 1932
• In addition to positive protons and
negative electrons, Chadwick found
out that there was another particle
called a neutron.

• He found out that the neutron had the

same mass of a proton, but it had no
charge.
 + Proton

The Modern Atomic Model - Today Neutron

The modern - Electron

The electrons orbit

model of the
the nucleus in
atom was co- - shells
developed by
James Chadwick + The centre of an
and Niels Bohr + atom is
called the Nucleus

-
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thnDxFdkzZs (H)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xazQRcSCRaY (F)
Democritus J.J Thomson Niels Bohr The Modern Atomic Model
Year: Year: Year:
Info: Info: Info:
Q. Which particles make up an
atom?

Q. What are the charges of

each?

Q. What does “Atomos” mean? Q. What model of the atom did Thomson Q. Where are the electrons found? Q. What is found in the
name? nucleus?

Q. What is found in shells?

History of the Atom – add info and a diagram to explain each stage

John Dalton Ernest Rutherford James Chadwick Q. What is the centre of the
Year: Year: Year: atom called?
Info: Info: Info:

Q. How did Dalton imagine the atom? Q. What did Rutherford’s experiment Q. What did Chadwick discover?
prove?
Democritus J.J Thomson Niels Bohr The Modern Atomic Model
Year: Year: Year:

History of the Atom – Draw each model of the atom!

John Dalton Ernest Rutherford James Chadwick

Year: Year: Year: