SCIENCE REVIEWER
Atom – smallest particle of an element that can exist alone
Two regions of an atom
Nucleus
-Center of atom
-Protons and neutrons
Electron “cloud”
-Area surrounding nucleus
containing electrons
Proton – Positive charge (+), 1 atomic mass unit (amu);
found in the nucleus
amu -Approximate mass of a proton or a neutron
Neutron – Neutral charge (0), 1 amu; found in the nucleus
Electron – Negative charge (-), mass is VERY small
People who took part in the atomic
theory:
Democritus (460 BC)
- Greek Philosopher and the first scientist to suggest the
existence of atoms
- Suggested world was made of two things – empty space
and “atomos”(Greek word for uncuttable)
- Everything is composed of atoms
- Atoms are hard small particles
- Thought matter was made of tiny particles that could not
be divided (indivisible)
John Dalton (1804)
- All matter is made of atoms.
- Atoms are indivisible (atoms are the smallest)
- Atoms of one element are all the same.
- Atoms cannot be broken down into smaller parts
- Compounds form by combining atoms.
- “Billiard Ball” model
Development of the Periodic Table
J.J. Thompson (1897)
- Discovered the electrons Antoine Lavoisier
- First scientist to show the atom was made of even - In 1789, Antoine Lavoisier, a French physicist-chemist
smaller things published a book that contained the classification of
elements based on their similar properties
Ernest Rutherford (1913) - He organized the elements into groups of gases, non-
- Discovered the nucleus of a gold atom with his “gold foil” metals, metals, and Earth elements.
experiment.
Neils Bohr (1885-1962)
Dobereiner’s Traid
- In 1817, Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner, a German
- Planetary model (1913)
Chemist, studied three elements and noticed similarities
- Nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons at
among the properties of metals such as Ca, Ba, and Sr.
different energy levels
- Electrons do not randomly orbit
- Electrons orbit like the solar system is the sun De Chancourtois' Telluric Helix
- In 1863, Alexandre Emil Beguyer de Chancourtois had
Counting Atoms
the idea to plot the elements in a spiral around the surface
Atomic Number of the cylinder divided into 16 vertical sections according to
-Number of protons in nucleus
-The number of protons determines identity of the element
the elements’ atomic masses.
Mass Number (Atomic Mass)
-Number of protons + neutrons
-Units are g/mol
ISOTOPES
-Atoms of the same element with varying number of
neutrons
-Different isotopes have different mass numbers because
the number of neutrons is different
IONS
-Sometimes atoms will gain or lose electrons and form
IONS
- When an atom GAINS electrons, it becomes NEGATIVE
- When an atom LOSES electrons, it becomes POSITIVE