Ancient Greeks and the Atom of different types of atoms.
Democritus' concept of the atom had not
During early times, the Greeks thought that the world was
made of four kinds of matter: earth, air, fire and water. They called
them "elements." The concept of the atom dates back to 450 B.C. It
was Greek philosopher Leucippus and his student, Democritus, who
first introduced the idea of the atom. Leucippus believed that there
was a limit to how far matter could be broken down into smaller
pieces. He thought that if you have a rock, you can break it into
pebbles, and the pebbles into gravel, and the gravel into sand, which
further could be pulverized into powder. To the Greek philosopher, it
seemed that there was the smallest bit of rock, which could not be
divided any further. This idea was expanded by Democritus by
giving the smallest component of matter the name atomos (atom in
English), a Greek word which means "indivisible" or
"indestructible." Democritus thought that each kind of atom was
distinct in shape and size, and substances were mixtures of different
kinds of atoms. Not all philosophers at the time agreed with
Democritus. Aristotle, the most prominent of the early Greek
philosophers, was one of them. Aristotle believed that the world was
made of earth, air, fire, and water. These elements were connected by
four "principles" - hot, moist, dry, and cold. These elements were
also believed to have their own natural places: the element "earth"
has the center of the universe; the element "water," the rim of sphere
of "earth"; element "air," the rim of the sphere of water, and the
element "fire," outside the sphere of "air. Considering that Aristotle
was the most known of the Greek philosophers, his idea of the atom
for centuries.
Democritus thought that individual atoms might be too small
to see, but when combined together, everything could be visible. He
suggested that each "element" (earth, air, fire, and water) is made up
become popular until centuries later.
19th Century Models of the Atom
Laws of Conservation of Mass
The first law was introduced by a famous French chemist,
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794). He is known as the Father
of Modern Chemistry. He called his principle the law of conservation
of mass. He performed experiments involving chemical reaction and
analyzed their results quantitatively. He found out that during a
chemical reaction, the total mass of reactants was always equal to the
total mass of the products. In other words, there was no significant
loss or gain of mass during a chemical reaction.
Alchemy was among the earliest practices of chemical
science. In a way, it is considered a predecessor to the modern
science of chemistry. Its roots in mythology and spiritualism make it
different from modern science. One of the primary goals of
alchemists is to find a method or material that can convert
inexpensive metals to precious gold and also to find a concoction
which could make a person youthful and immortal. The existence of
such materials and the possibility of such feats were based on myths.
During the medieval times alchemists could be found in many
countries around the world. Different regions held different beliefs.
As recently as the 1700s, in the western world, people were still
considering converting metals into gold. In fact, in the late 1700s, a
scientist named James Price was still at work trying to "transmute"
metals into gold and silver. In 1782, he claimed he could convert
mercury into silver and gold. As more scientists asked to witness the
experiments, Price eventually lost confidence in the validity of his must also be fixed. Table 1.1 shows the percentage composition of
work. He was the last of the modern scientist to claim to have water and other common compounds.
achieved the goals of alchemy. Robert Boyle, who in 1661 published
Table 1.1 Percentage Composition of Common Compounds
the The Sceptical Chymist, argue that experiments disproved the idea
Substance Ratio in % by Mass Ratio of Atoms Present
that the universe was composed solely of Aristotle's four elements.
88.9% oxygen oxygen : hydrogen
Boyle was an alchemist, in that he believed that one metal could be Water
11.1% oxygen 1:2
changed into another, but he was a strong promoter of the scientific 27.3% carbon carbon : oxygen
Carbon dioxide
method and, therefore, helped elevate chemistry into a science. It 72.7% oxygen 1:2

may seem that the law of conservation of mass does not apply in
some cases involving chemical changes. For example, the rusted nail
has a greater mass than the original nail. However, if the rusting is
carried out, including the gas consumed when iron nail rusts, the
mass before and after rusting will be the same.
Law of Definite Proportion
The second principle was the law of definite proportion,
formulated by another French chemist, Joseph Proust (1754-1826) in
1799. The law showed that a given compound always contained the
same elements in the same proportion by mass.
The law of definite proportion may be illustrated by
examining water. Water is always 88.9% oxygen and 11.1%
hydrogen by mass no matter how and where such compound is
prepared or obtained or how much water there is. A drop of water
and a bucket of water contain the same elements in the same
proportion by mass.
39.7% sodium sodium : chlorine
Sodium chloride
60.3% chlorine 1:1
Dalton's Atomic Theory
In 1803, John Dalton (1766-1844)-an English scientist and
schoolteacher- studied the two laws of chemical combination and
other experimental observations and concluded that the behavior of
matter could be explained only if matter was composed of atoms or
the atomic theory was used. This theory, now known as Dalton's
atomic theory, marked the beginning of the modern era of chemistry.
Dalton's atomic theory may be summarized in three
postulates:
1. All matter is composed of exceedingly small indivisible
particles called atoms.
An element is composed of tiny particles called atoms. All
atoms of a given element show the same chemical properties. Atoms
of different elements show different properties.

With the law of definite proportion, we can say that if the 2. No two elements or atoms of different kinds have
ratios of the masses of different elements in a given compound are exactly the same properties.
fixed, then the ratios of the atoms of these elements in the compound
 Atoms of different elements have different masses and
different chemical properties. Atoms are not created or destroyed in
chemical reactions.
In an ordinary chemical reaction, atoms transfer from one
substance to another, but no atom of any element just disappears, or
is changed in an atom of another element.
3. Atoms combine in simple, fixed whole number ratios to form
compounds. Compounds are formed when atoms of two or more
elements combine In a given compound, the relative numbers of
atoms of each kind are definite and constant. In general, these
relative numbers can be expressed as integers or simple fractions.
The third postulate supports the law of definite proportion. It
also gives rise to the law of multiple proportion which states that if
two elements can combine to form more than one compound, the
masses of one element that combined with a fixed mass of the other
element are in ratios of small whole numbers. Take, for example,
carbon and oxygen: The two elements can combine to form two
stable compounds, carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO).
In CO, the carbon to oxygen ratio is 1:1 while in CO₂, the ratio is
1:2. Another example is shown in Table 1.2. It shows the
experimental data taken for the reaction of sulfur and oxygen which
may form two different substances.
Table 1.2 Data on the Reaction of Sulfur and Oxygen
Atom ratio of
Amount of Mass of sulfur Mass of
Substance
sample (g) (g) oxygen (g)
Sulfur dioxide 2.00 1.00 1.00
Sulfur
2.50 1.00 1.50
trioxide
The second postulate supports the law of conservation of
mass. If you consider the reaction between zinc and hydrochloric
acid to form zinc chloride and hydrogen gas, the chemical equation
is as follows:
Zn(s) + 2HCI ZnCI2(aq) + H2(g)
The atoms simply rearranged themselves to form a new
combination of atoms but the zinc (Zn), chlorine (CI), and hydrogen
(H) atoms before the reaction are the same zinc, chlorine, and
hydrogen atoms after the reaction.
How an atom looked like was not the subject of study of
John Dalton and his contemporaries at the time. They just thought
that atoms were hard and round like ball bearings. But if no two
atoms have exactly the same properties according to Dalton's second
postulate, what makes them different from one another? They are all
atoms after all.
Taking a second look at Dalton's theory, we realize that
many of the things we know and understand at the moment can be
explained in terms of the atomic theory using Dalton's theory. One of
them is the difference between elements and compounds. Elements
are composed of only one kind of atom. A sample of the element,
helium, has only helium atoms in it.
sulfur to
oxygen
SO2
1:2
SO3
1:3