Baladad Richelle

11 ABM-B

PHYSICAL SCIENCE

1. Describe the ideas of the ancient greeks on the atom.

The ideas of the ancient Greeks on the atom states that:

 All matter is made up of tiny,indivisible particles called atoms,which came from the
Greek word atomos meaning uncuttable.
 The atoms make up the universe as they are continuously moving in a “void” that
surrounds them,repelling each other when they collide, or combining into clusters.
 Atoms are completely solid which means that there is no void or empty space inside
that will make them prone to disintegration or destruction.

2. Cite the contributions of the following scientists to the understanding of the structure of the
atom.

Democritus
Democritus developed the idea that the end point of all division was an atom. This basic
matter particle was thought to be indestructible.
 Aristotle

Aristotle did not believe in the atomic theory and he taught so otherwise. He thought that

all materials on Earth were not made of atoms, but of the four elements, Earth, Fire,

Water, and Air. He believed all substances were made of small amounts of these four

elements of matter. His views about elements are incorrect

John Dalton

Experiments with gases that first became possible at the turn of the nineteenth century led John

Dalton in 1803 to propose a modern theory of the atom based on the following assumptions. 1.

Matter is made up of atoms that are indivisible and indestructible. 2. All atoms of an element are

identical. 3. Atoms of different elements have different weights and different chemical

properties. 4. Atoms of different elements combine in simple whole numbers to form

compounds. 5. Atoms cannot be created or destroyed. When a compound decomposes, the

atoms are recovered unchanged

 J.J. Thomson

Thomson realized that the accepted model of an atom did not account for negatively or

positively charged particles. Therefore, he proposed a model of the atom which he

likened to plum pudding. The negative electrons represented the raisins in the pudding

and the dough contained the positive charge. Thomson's model of the atom did explain

some of the electrical properties of the atom due to the electrons, but failed to recognize

the positive charges in the atom as particles.

Ernest Rutherford

Rutherford proposed that an atom is composed of empty space mostly with electrons orbiting in

a set, predictable paths around fixed, positively charged nucleus.

Henry Moseley
Known as Moseley’s law, this fundamental discovery concerning atomic numbers was a

milestone in advancing the knowledge of the atom. In 1914 Moseley published a paper in which

he concluded that there were three unknown elements between aluminum and gold (there are,

in fact, four). He also concluded correctly that there were only 92 elements up to and including

uranium and 14 rare-earth elements

Niels Bohr

The discoveries of the electron and radioactivity at the end of the 19th century led to different
models for the structure of the atom. In 1913, Niels Bohr proposed a theory for the hydrogen
atom based on quantum theory that energy is transferred only in certain well defined quantities.
Electrons should move around the nucleus but only in prescribed orbits. When jumping from
one orbit to another with lower energy, a light quantum is emitted. Bohr's theory could explain
why atoms emitted light in fixed wavelengthsent.

James Chadwick

James Chadwick played a vital role in the atomic theory, as he discovered the Neutron in
atoms.Neutrons are located in the center of an atom, in the nucleus along with the protons.
They have neither a positive nor negative charge, but contribute the the atomic weight with the
same effect as a proton.
Chadwick discovered this subatomic particle by using a neutron chamber in his experiments.