PHYSICAL SCIENCE
- 17th Century
WHAT IS AN ATOM?
- Atoms are the smallest unit of matter and make up
everything around us.
- All matter whether in the form of water, carbon, air, or
minerals consists of atoms, which are in turn made up of
simple particles.
ANCIENT IDEAS OF ATOMS
- THALES OF MILETUS (640-546 B.C) - synthesis
during life and the decomposition after death, water was
the primary component of all matter
- ANAXIMENES (526 B.C) - air
- HERACLITUS (537-507 B.C) - fire
- PYTHAGORAS OF SAMOS (582-507 B.C) - All matter
is a combination of water, air, fire, and earth.
- EMPEDOCLES (450 B.C) - All matter is composed of
various combinations and proportions of four elements.
Example: The shinier a metal, the more fire it contains.
- ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C)
- Agreed with Pythagoras
- All matters are infinitely divisible.
- Gravity = elements going home
- LEUCIPPUS OF MILET (500-420 B.C) - First to believe
atoms. Atom for the Greek word “atomos” meaning
indivisible.
- DEMOCRITUS OF ABDERE (460-370 B.C)
CHARACTERISTICS OF ATOM:
1. INVISIBLE because it is extremely small.
2, INDIVISIBLE because it cannot be broken down into a
tinier unit
3. SOLID, SPHERICAL, not empty.
4. Surrounded by an EMPTY SPACE
5. ETERNAL because atoms are seamless.
6. IMMEASURABLE number of shapes.
- EPICURUS (341-270 B.C) - Supported Democritus'
theory.
ALCHEMY: THE DARK AGE OF ATOMISM
- Aristotle refuted Democritus’s theory of atomism.
- CHEMISTRY -is the study of properties and behavior of
matter. Central science.
- ALCHEMY - A mixture of black magic, and scientific
knowledge with many superstitions.
- Alchemist developed a test tube, closed crucible, and
retort.
- Alchemy laid the foundation of medicine.
- PHILIPPUS AUREOLUS PARACELSUS - “Father of
Toxicology”
THREE MAIN GOALS OF ALCHEMY:
1. Find the ‘elixir of life” which can bring wealth, power,
and immortality.
2. Find the so-called “philosopher’s stone” which can turn
base metals into gold (believed to be the purest form of
matter).
3. Discover to be the cosmological relationships of
humans.
REVIVAL OF ATOMISM
- PIERRE GASSENDI (1592-1655) - Rejected the view
that matter is infinitely divisible.
- Suggested objects have subrata made up of basic,
indivisible principles.
- ROBERT BOYLE (1627-1691) - Boyle’s Law
- Claimed to transmute gold into mercury by means of
“quicksilver”
- All matter consists of corpuscles.
- Element is a substance that cannot be broken into two
or more substances.
- Father of Chemistry
- ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1726) - Opticks
- Corpuscular nature of light.
- Matter and light are made up of corpuscles.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE ATOM
❖ DALTON’S “BILLIARD BALL” MODEL
- Proposed by John Dalton (1766 - 1844)
- All atoms of an element have the same size and weight
and that the atoms of an element bond chemically in
simple ratios to form compounds.
- Deduced Law of Multiple Proportion
HIS ATOMIC THEORY:
1. All matter is made of indestructible atoms.
2. Atoms of the same element are identical in their
physical and chemical properties.
3. Atoms of different elements have different physical
and chemical properties.
4. Atoms of different elements combine in simple
whole-number ratios to form chemical compounds.
5. In chemical reactions, atoms cannot be subdivided,
created, or destroyed. They are only combined,
separated, or rearranged.
❖ THE SUBATOMIC PARTICLES AND
THOMSON’S PLUM-PUDDING MODEL
- WILLIAM CROOKES (1860s) - Invented Crookes’
Tube to observe cathode rays.
- GEORGE JOHNSTONE STONEY (1891) - Cathode
rays = Electron from “Electric Ion”
- EUGEN GOLDSTEIN (1886) - Observe “canal rays”
- WILHELM WIEN (1889) - Coined “proton”
- JOSEPH JOHN THOMSON (1856-1940)
- Dalton’s atomic model was not accurate.
- Atoms are uniform spheres of positively charged matter
embedded with negatively charged electrons.
- 1987, he proposed the plum-pudding model or raisin
bread atomic model because he visualized that electrons
are stuffed like raisins in the positively charged mass or
“loaf of bread.”
❖ RUTHERFORD’S NUCLEAR MODEL OF THE
ATOM
- ERNEST RUTHERFORD (1871-1937)
- Tested Thomson’s idea by striking alpha particles
through a thin gold foil and identified them as flashes of
light or scintillations on a screen.
- Nucleus is composed of nucleons: protons and
neutrons.
- Unstable motion of electron
RUTHERFORD’S CONCLUSION:
1. Gold atoms must be mostly empty space.
2. Atom is composed of a positive, central core called
nucleus.
3. Electrons circulate the nucleus from a distance.
- JAMES CHADWICK (1932) - Discovered neutrons.
- HENRY MOSELEY (1887-1915)
- Atoms have a unique positive charge in their nucleus.
- Identity of atoms comes from the number of protons.
- Atomic number is the number of protons and electrons in
an atom.
- Mass of an atom is concentrated on its massive center.
- Mass is equal to the number of protons and electrons
combined.
- Unit “amu” (atomic mass unit) is used for atomic mass.
- Nuclear symbol = Element symbol + mass + atomic
number
❖ QUANTUM HYPOTHESIS AND PHOTOELECTRIC
EFFECT
- MAX KARL LUDWIG PLANCK (1858-1947)
- Quantum Hypothesis
- A physical system cannot have random quantities of
energy but only discontinuous quantities assuming that the
energy comes in little bundles called quanta (plural of
quantum).
- ALBERT EINSTEIN (1879-1955)
- Light also delivers its energy in bundles called photons.
- Light can dislodge an electron.
- Photoelectric effect.
❖ BOHR’S PLANETARY MODEL OF THE ATOM
- NIELS BOHR (1885-1962) - Proposed his quantized
planetary model of the atom to elucidate how electrons can
have stable orbits around the nucleus.
- Correctly assumed that electrons exist in certain energy
states.
BOHR HYPOTHESIZED THE FOLLOWING:
1. Electrons in atoms are permissible to be in certain
motionless states. Each stationary state is associated with a
certain energy.
2.No energy emission occurs while an electron is in a
stationary state. When it moves from a high-energy
stationary state to a low-energy stationary state (a
transition), an emission of energy takes place. The amount
of energy is equal to the energy difference between the two
stationary states.
3. In any stationary state, the electron moves in a circular
orbit around the nucleus.
4. An electron is allowed to move with angular momentum.
❖ SCHRODINGER’S ELECTRON CLOUD MODEL
-Bohr’s model correctly assumed that electrons exist in
certain energy states. But his model failed to explain how
the electrons move about the orbits.
- LOUIS DE BROGLIE (1892-1987)
- Dual nature of electrons
- Every particle has wavelike properties and its wavelength
is related to its mass.
- WERNER HEISENBERG (1901-1976)
- Uncertain Principle
- Position and momentum of all small moving particles could
not be measured or known accurately at the same time.
- ERWIN SCHRODINGER (1887-1961)
- Developed an atomic model based on wave
function,which is based on the assumption that an electron
is a wave.
- Quantum Mechanical Model
- Atomic orbital - function of an electron
- Allowed electrons to occupy three-dimensional space.
ISOTOPES
- Elements with the same atomic number but different
mass.
- HALF-LIFE is the amount of time it takes for half of the
atoms to decay into a more stable form.
- Most isotopes have short half-lives and must be produced
in the laboratory to study or use.
- URANIUM-238 has a half-life of 4.5 billion years so it can
occur naturally.
-Co-60 has only a half-life of 5.3 years half-life and is made
in a nuclear reactor, also being used for radiation therapy of
cancer patients.
RADIOACTIVITY AND THE NUCLEAR REACTION
- ERNEST RUTHERFORD discovered the three types of
radiation:
- alpha (α) - positively charged particle
- beta (β) - negatively charged particle
- gamma (y) - unchanged ray.
ALPHA EMISSION
- The radioactive nuclide is changed into an element with an
atomic number and mass number lower than 2 and 4,
respectively. In the equation of nuclear reactions, the alpha
particle is written as α or stable helium.
- Two protons and two neutrons are lost
- Protons and neutrons leave as an alpha particle
BETA EMISSION
- Some radioactive nuclides have a neutron-to-proton ratio
that is so high that they become unstable. To be stable,
they undergo beta emission (β or 0 (mass), -1(atomic) e),
where the neutron becomes a proton, which stays inside
the nucleus, and an electron, which is ejected from the
atom as a beta particle. The radioactive nuclide in beta
emission changes into a different element with an atomic
number greater than one but with the same mass.
- An electron is ejected
POSITION EMISSION
- That has a neutron-to-proton ratio that is too low and
therefore below the band of stability, can attain stability in
two different ways: positron emission or electron capture.
-(β or 0(mass), 1(atomic) e) occurs when a proton becomes
a neutron and an antimatter electron.
-the neutron stays in the nucleus and the positron speeds
out of the nucleus at a very high velocity, resulting in the
radioactive nuclide becoming a different element with an
atomic number that is lower by one but with the same mass.
- A positron is ejected
ELECTRON CAPTURE
- The electron combines with a proton to form a neutron.
-Iodine-25 which is used to determine blood hormone levels
undergoes electron capture.
- Has the same conditions as position emission.
GAMMA RADIATION
- More stable products, it always releases energy.
- Gamma rays-steams of high-energy photons-are released
when a radioactive nuclide leaves a nucleus in an excited
state.
- When the product element descends to its ground state, it
gives off photons in the gamma-ray region.
-excited state, beta emission, gamma photon