EARLY THEORIES OF

THE ATOM
DEMOCRITUS AND LEUCIPPUS
• Greek philosophers who described atom 2500 years ago
• Believed that all matter in nature consisted of two things: ATOMS and the VOID
(emptiness) around them.
• Atoms are indivisible and indestructible because they are very small
• They also believed that different atoms have different shape and sizes
JOHN DALTON

• In 1803, proposed a theory of the atom

• He is regarded as the “Father of the Modern Atomic Theory”
• He presented concrete evidence that all matter is made up of very small particles called
ATOM
• He chose the word atom from the Greek word “atomos” to emphasize that these
particles are indestructible and indivisible
JOHN DALTON’S ATOMIC THEORY

• All matter is made up of tiny, indivisible particles called atoms.

• All atoms of a particular element are alike.
• During chemical reactions, atoms rearranged to form new compounds, however atom are
not created, destroyed, nor changed into atoms of other elements.
• Atoms of different elements combine with another in certain whole-number proportions
to form compounds.
LAW OF CONSERVATION OF MASS

• States that in an ordinary chemical reaction,

the total mass of the reactants should be
equal to the total mass of the products.
LAW OF DEFINITE PROPORTION

• Established by JOSEPH PROUST, states that

samples of pure compound will contain the
same elements in the same proportion.
LAW OF MULTIPLE PROPORTIONS
• States that the mass one element that can
combine with a fixed mass of another element
can be expressed in a ratio of small whole
numbers.
DIFFERENT MODELS OF THE ATOM
• Sir Joseph John Thomson, in 1897, discovered the electrons.
• He proposed the PLUM PUDDING MODEL OF THE ATOM
• He believed that the atom was a large, positive, solid sphere. The negatively charged
electrons were embedded in the positively charged sphere.
ERNEST RUTHERFORD
• HE was credited for the discovery of the NUCLEUS
and the PROTON.
• He was the first one to assume that the electrons are
moving around the nucleus of an atom.
• NUCLEAR MODEL OF THE ATOM
NIELS BOHR
• Improved on Rutherford’s model of the atom.
• He was the first to assign electrons in energy levels or
electron shells.
• BOHR’S ATOMIC MODEL OF THE ATOM
THE QUANTUM MECHANICAL MODEL OF THE
ATOM

• Considered the more accepted model of the

atom
• This model describes the location or position of
the electrons around the atom as a probability.