The Atom

CHAPTER ONE:
THE ATOM
HOW DID THE CONCEPT OF AN
ATOM EVOLVE?
The idea that matter is made up of very small
particles and that all matter is constituted
from small number of basic substances date
back to the ancient Greek thinkers.
Presentation title 2
IDEAS ABOUT THE ATOM DURING ANCIENT TIMES
DEMOCRITUS
Presentation title
D 4
IDEAS ABOUT THE ATOMS
The ideas that all matter is made of tiny, tiny

particles is traced back to Democritus (470-330
BC) who drew on the teachings of his mentor,
Leucippus (490 BC). Their ideas were largely based
on reasoning rather scientific testing.
Democritus considered these extremely small
piece of matter eternal and indestructible and
called it atomos, meaning “indivisible”. He
also reasoned that the atomos of each material
is unique and different from the atomos of
another material.
Democritus’ idea of the atom has been

called “the best guess in antiquity.” That’s
because it was correct in many ways, yet
it was based on pure speculation. It really
was just a guess.
Here’s what Democritus thought
about the atom:
•All matter consists of atoms, which cannot be
further subdivided into smaller particles.
•Atoms are extremely small—too small to see.
•Atoms are solid particles that are indestructible.
•Atoms are separated from one another by
emptiness, or “void.”
How are Democritus’s ideas
about atoms similar to modern
ideas about atoms?
Modern ideas agree that all
matter is made up of
extremely small building
blocks called atoms.
How are Democritus’s
ideas different from
modern ideas?
Although atoms are extremely small, it is now possible to
see them with very powerful microscopes. Atoms also
aren’t the solid, uncuttable particles Democritus thought.
Instead, they consist of several kinds of smaller, simpler
particles as well as a lot of empty space. In addition,
atoms aren’t really indestructible because they can be
changed to other forms of matter or energy.
Presentation title
D 13
This sort of observation gave Democritus the idea
that atoms are in constant, random motion. If this
were true, Democritus thought, then atoms must
always be bumping into each other. When they do,
he surmised, they either bounce apart or stick
together to form clumps of atoms. Eventually, the
clumps could grow big enough to be visible matter.
Which modern theory of matter is
similar to Democritus’ ideas about
the motion of atoms?
The modern kinetic theory of matter is
remarkably similar to Democritus’ ideas about the
motion of atoms. According to this theory, atoms
of matter are in constant random motion. This
motion is greater in gases than in liquids, and it is
greater in liquids than in solids. But even in solids,
atoms are constantly vibrating in place.
Democritus thought that different
kinds of atoms make up different
types of matter. How is this similar to
modern ideas about atoms?
The modern view is that atoms of
different elements differ in their
numbers of protons and electrons, and
this gives them different physical and
chemical properties.
The idea of atoms making up all matter
did not prosper among most of the Greek
philosophers largely because Aristotle
who was very influential philosopher
rejected it and considered it a worthless
idea.
The idea of atoms making up all matter
did not prosper among most of the Greek
philosophers largely because Aristotle
who was very influential philosopher
rejected it and considered it a worthless
idea.
The idea of atoms or small particles

making up matter lay dormant for more
than 2000 years. It was not until the 1800s
when people pursued the question again
about the structure of matter.
ASSIGNMENT
A
1. Who was Democritus?
2. How did Democritus reason for

the existence of atoms?
3. How did Democritus describe

atoms?
4. Discuss how well Democritus’

ideas about atoms have withstood
the test of time?
LESSON 2:
EXPLORATIONS
ABOUT
ELEMENTS
THALES (640-540BC)
EXPLORATIONS Thought that the

ABOUT
ELEMENTS basic element of
matter was water.
ANAXIMENES (611-
546BC)
EXPLORATIONS
ABOUT Thought it was an
ELEMENTS
air.
HERACLITUS (540-
475BC)
EXPLORATIONS
ABOUT Thought fire was the
ELEMENTS
basic element.
EMPEDOCLES (430-
390BC)
Combined these ideas and

EXPLORATIONS added a fourth element,
ABOUT earth. Thus was born the idea
ELEMENTS
that all of matter are made
out of the four elements,
water, air, fire, and earth, in
different amounts.
“
I now mean by elements… certain primitive and simple or
perfectly unmingled bodies, which not being made of other
”
bodies or of one another, are the ingredients of which all
those perfectly mixed bodies are immediately compounded
and into which they are ultimately resolved.
Aristotle
WHAT IS THE
STRUCTURE OF
ATOMS?
PROBING THE ATOM
W
• Sir Humphrey Davy
discovered that some
compounds like
potassium carbonate
decomposed when
electricity was passed
through them.
PROBING THE ATOM
W
• Michael Faraday measured
the masses of the elements
produced through this
process and found these to
be proportional to the
quantity of electricity
passed through the sample.
PROBING THE ATOM
W
•George J. Stoney
suggested the
name electron
for this particle
of electricity.
But where would these particles
come from? From the atom?
CATHODE RAY TUBE
1. The cathode ray was not a light ray but rather consisted of negatively
charged particles because it was attracted to a positively charged plate and
deflected by a magnetic field.
2. These negatively charged particles were concluded to be present in all
matter and therefore a part of all atoms because the particles had the same
characteristics regardless of the metal used as electrode or the gas present in
the tube. One of these properties was the charge-to-mass ratio of the
particles measured by Sir Joseph John Thompson. These particles are the
particles of electricity suggested by Faraday, the electrons.
PRESENT MODEL OF THE ATOM
Richard Feynman
Physicist, 1965 Nobel Laureate and professor,
said, “The test of all knowledge is
experiment. Experiment is the sole judge of
scientific truth.”
Heinrich Hertz
A German physicist and his associate, Philipp
Lenard, that cathode rays penetrated this
sheets of metal suggested that a large portion
of the atom is empty space.
Ernest Rutherford
A British physicist and his German assistant, Hans Geiger,
reached similar conclusions. They fired alpha particles,
which are helium atoms minus two electrons, at a very thin
metal sheet, passing through more than 10,000 atoms and
observed how they would be scattered after passing through
the metal foil.
These observation compelled them to propose
another model of the atom:
1. 1. the atom is mostly empty space as supported by the
observation that most of the alpha particles passed through the
metal foil undeflected.
2. The atom has a core, a nucleus, that is very small which contains
all the positive charge of the atom and most of its mass.
3. The negatively charged electrons move around the nucleus and
occupy most of the volume of the atom.
PRESENT MODEL OF THE ATOM
The particle responsible for the positive charge of

the nucleus was discovered later by Eugene
Goldstein and confirmed by other experiments of
Rutherford. Rutherford named this particle proton
from the Greek word meaning “first”.
THE PROTON
The proton was subsequently found to have a

positive charge that is of the same magnitude as
that of the electron. The proton is very massive
compared to the electron but could not account for
all the mass of the nucleus.
THE NEUTRON
The neutron, a neutral particle with about the same

mass as the proton, was later discovered by James
Chadwick, accounts for the rest of the mass of the
nucleus of atoms.
STRUCTURE OF THE ATOM
The protons and neutrons, collectively called

nucleons, are tightly packed in the nucleus at the
center of the atom. The electrons move rapidly
around the nucleus forming.
QUICK CHECK
• Of the three particles, protons, neutrons, and

electrons, which two have about the same
mass? Which one has the smallest mass? Which
one is not charged?
QUICK CHECK
• Silver has an atomic number of 47. how many

protons are there in a silver atom? How many
electrons in a neutral silver atom? What is the
charge of the nucleus of a silver atom?
QUICK CHECK
• The mass of an toms is manly due to the mas of

the protons and neutrons in its nucleus. With each
proton and each neutron having a relative mass of
1 amu, the sum of the number of protons and the
number of neutrons gives the relative mass of an
atom. This is called the atom’s mass number, A.
QUICK CHECK
• Atoms of the same element may have different

number of neutrons. For example atoms of
carbon have six neutrons, some have seven and
still others have eight. These atoms of the same
element which differ in number of neutrons are
called isotopes.
PROPERTIES AND REPRESENTATION
OF THE ISOTOPES OF CARBON:
Z NO. OF NUCLEAR NO. OF NOI. OF A SYMBOL OTHER
PROTONS CHARGE ELECTRONS NEUTRONS REPRESENTATION
6 6 +6 6 6 12 12
C
6 C-12
ISOTOPES
OF
CARBON
6 6 +6 6 7 13 13
C
6 C-13
6 6 +6 6 8 14 14
C
6 C-14
The most common isotope of hydrogen is

the only isotope with no neutron. The
nucleus of this isotope of hydrogen is
simply a proton.
Chemical properties depend largely on the number
of electrons of an atom hence isotopes have the
same chemical properties. Their physical properties
vary slightly because of their different masses.
They may differ in their nuclear properties like
radioactivity because of differences in number of
nucleons.
SUMMARY
• The ideas of atoms as particles making up all of

matter and of elements as substances
constituting all of matter were proposed by the
ancient Greek philosophers. Further
observations and carefully designed experiments
through the years have supported these ideas.
SUMMARY
• John Dalton’s atomic theory postulated that all

atoms of a given element are identical. Atoms of
different elements combine to form compounds.
During chemical reactions, atoms combine with
each other and/or separate from one another.
SUMMARY
• The experiments of Rutherford and his
coworkers led to the currently held nuclear
model of the atom. An atom consists of a
positive nucleus surrounded by negative
electrons. The nucleus contains the positive
protons and the neutral neutrons that constitutes
nearly all of the mass of the atom.
SUMMARY
• All atoms of an element have the same number

of protons, called the atomic number. Atoms of
the same element may differ in their number of
neutrons; these are called isotopes. The sum of
the number of protons and the number of
neutron is called the mass number.
Thank you

The Atom

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Atom

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

CHAPTER ONE:

The ideas that all matter is made of tiny, tiny

Democritus’ idea of the atom has been

The idea of atoms or small particles

2. How did Democritus reason for

3. How did Democritus describe

4. Discuss how well Democritus’

EXPLORATIONS Thought that the

Combined these ideas and

The particle responsible for the positive charge of

The proton was subsequently found to have a

The neutron, a neutral particle with about the same

The protons and neutrons, collectively called

• Of the three particles, protons, neutrons, and

• Silver has an atomic number of 47. how many

• The mass of an toms is manly due to the mas of

• Atoms of the same element may have different

The most common isotope of hydrogen is

• The ideas of atoms as particles making up all of

• John Dalton’s atomic theory postulated that all

• All atoms of an element have the same number

You might also like