JUMUAD, KYLA B.
NATSCI 111
BSBA 3MM
DALTONS ATOMIC THEORY
Proust's tin oxides, one tin atom will combine with either one or two oxygen atoms. [4]
Dalton believed atomic theory could explain why water absorbed different gases in different
proportions - for example, he found that water absorbed carbon dioxide far better than it
absorbed nitrogen.[5] Dalton hypothesized this was due to the differences in mass and complexity of
the gases' respective particles. Indeed, carbon dioxide molecules (CO 2) are heavier and larger than
nitrogen molecules (N2).
Democritus first suggested the existence of the atom but it took almost two
millennia before the atom was placed on a solid foothold as a fundamental
chemical object by John Dalton (1766-1844). Although two centuries old,
Dalton's atomic theory remains valid in modern chemical thought.
Dalton's Atomic Theory
1) All matter is made of atoms. Atoms are indivisible
and indestructible.
2) All atoms of a given element are identical in mass
and properties
3) Compounds are formed by a combination of two or
more different kinds of atoms.
4) A chemical reaction is a rearrangementof atoms.
Modern atomic theory is, of course, a little more involved than Dalton's
theory but the essence of Dalton's theory remains valid. Today we know that
atoms can be destroyed via nuclear reactions but not by chemical reactions.
Also, there are different kinds of atoms (differing by their masses) within an
element that are known as "isotopes", but isotopes of an element have the
same chemical properties.
Many heretofore unexplained chemical phenomena were quickly explained
by Dalton with his theory. Dalton's theory quickly became the theoretical
foundation in chemistry.
J.J THOMSON PLUM PUDDING MODEL OF ATOM
J.J. Thomson (b. Dec. 18, 1856, England d. Aug. 30, 1940,) held that atoms
are uniform spheres of positively charged matter in which electrons are
embedded. He realized that electrons existed by improving Crookes tube, a
tube that contained a small amount of gas through which electricity was
passed. Crooke had noticed that the rays inside the tube were bent by a
magnet, something that ordinary light does not do. By developing a better
vacuum, Thomson showed that these same rays also bend towards the
positive plate of a battery, no matter what gas produces them. Thomson
concluded that these cathode rays were basic particles found in all
elements. He went on to propose what is popularly known as the plum-
pudding model of the atom. In other words he thought that atoms were not
indivisible spheres, but positive spheres with negative electrons embedded
in them. It had to be abandoned (1911) on both theoretical and experimental
grounds in favor of the Rutherford atomic model
Ernest Rutherford. Discovery of the nucleus
Ernest Rutherford. (b. Aug. 30, 1871, New Zealand; d. Oct. 19, 1937,
England) The model described the atom as a tiny, dense, positively charged
core called a nucleus, in which nearly all the mass is concentrated, around
which the light, negative constituents, called electrons, circulate at some
distance, much like planets revolving around the Sun. The Rutherford atomic
model has been alternatively called the nuclear atom, or the planetary model
of the atom. The young physicists beamed alpha particles through gold foil
and detected them as flashes of light or scintillations on a screen. The gold
foil was only 0.00004 centimeter thick. Most of the alpha particles went
straight through the foil, but some were deflected by the foil and hit a spot
on a screen placed off to one side. Geiger and Marsden found that about one
in 20,000 alpha particles had been deflected 45o or more. Rutherford asked
why so many alpha particles passed through the gold foil while a few were
deflected so greatly. "It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch
shell at a piece of tissue paper, and it came back to hit you," Rutherford said
later. "On consideration, I realized that this scattering backwards must be the
result of a single collision, and when I made calculations I saw that it was
impossible to get anything of that order of magnitude unless you took a
system in which the greater part of the mass of the atom was concentrated
in a minute nucleus. It was then that I had the idea of an atom with a minute
massive center carrying a charge." Rutherford concluded that the positive charge of the
atom must be concentrated in a very tiny volume to produce an electric field sufficiently intense to
deflect the alpha particles so strongly.
BOHRS MODEL
In atomic physics, the Bohr model, devised by Niels Bohr, depicts the atom as a
small, positively charged nucleus surrounded by electrons that travel in circular
orbits around the nucleus—similar in structure to the solar system, but
with electrostatic forces providing attraction, rather than gravity. This was an
improvement on the earlier cubic model (1902), the plum-pudding model (1904),
the Saturnian model (1904), and the Rutherford model (1911). Since the Bohr model
is a quantum physics-based modification of the Rutherford model, many sources
combine the two, referring to the RutherfordBohr model.
Introduced by Niels Bohr in 1913, the model's key success lay in explaining
the Rydberg formula for the spectral emission lines of atomic hydrogen. While the
Rydberg formula had been known experimentally, it did not gain a theoretical
underpinning until the Bohr model was introduced. Not only did the Bohr model
explain the reason for the structure of the Rydberg formula, it also provided a
justification for its empirical results in terms of fundamental physical constants.
The Bohr model is a primitive model of the hydrogen atom. As a theory, it can be
derived as a first-order approximation of the hydrogen atom using the broader and
much more accurate quantum mechanics, and thus may be considered to be
an obsolete scientific theory. However, because of its simplicity, and its correct
results for selected systems (see below for application), the Bohr model is still
commonly taught to introduce students to quantum mechanics, before moving on to
the more accurate but more complex valence shell atom. A related model was
originally proposed by Arthur Erich Haas in 1910, but was rejected. The quantum
theory of the period between Planck's discovery of the quantum (1900) and the
advent of a full-blown quantum mechanics (1925) is often referred to as the old
quantum theory.