6.

6
Models of the Atom
Laws VS Theories
• Laws describe and summarize what
happens.
• Theories attempt to explain why things
happen.
• Models are used to illustrate or explain laws
or theories
• Because atoms are too small to see we make
models to help us understand how atoms
look and behave. We often use models to
test theories because the real thing is
unavailable.
 Aristotle

Aristotile (450BCE):
• Everything is made of 4 elements (earth,
fire, water, air) and four forces (hotness,
dryness, wetness, coldness)
• This nonsense was based on pure
thought and not actual proof.
 Democritus

Democritus (400BCE):
• Matter can be divided into smaller and
smaller particles until a single indivisible
particle called an atom
• Atom: the smallest particle of an
element that has all the properties of this
element
• (Most people still used Aristotle’s model)
 Dalton

John Dalton’s atomic theory (1803)

• Atoms are solid spheres (billiard balls),
cannot be created or destroyed
 Thompson
JJ Thompson
(1897)
• discovered
charged particles
within the atom
using gas
discharge tubes
• electron: a
negatively
charged
subatomic
particle with
almost no mass
Thompson
Thompson’s Raisin
bun model:
(positively charged
bun with negatively
charged raisins)
• Atoms are a solid
mass made of
uniformly positive
material.
• Electrons are small,
densely negative
chunks embedded
throughout.
 Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford’s gold foil experiment (1909)
•Shoots alpha particles (subatomic wrecking
balls) at a thin sheet of gold foil
•Expected to see some alpha particles be
deflected by very small amounts
•Observed most alpha particles go straight
through; therefore there must be relatively large
distances between atoms
 Rutherford

Rutherford was surprised to see some alpha

particles bounce back from the foil; therefore
there must be some part of the atom that is very
dense and intensely positive
Nucleus: the positively
charged center of an atom
Proton: a positively
charged subatomic
particle found in the
nucleus
The number of protons determines which element
the atom is
 Chadwick
James Chadwick (1932)
• Neutron: an uncharged subatomic
particle found in the nucleus with the
same mass as protons

•Neutrons and protons are collectively known as

nucleons
 Chadwick
• Isotope: if two atoms of an element
(same # of protons) have different
numbers of neutrons they are called
isotopes of that element
• Ex. 3 isotopes of Hydrogen:
• regular Hydrogen=1p,0n
• Deuterium=1p,1n
• Tritium=1p,2n
• Tritium is a radioisotope (an isotope that
is radioactive)
 Bohr
• In 1913 Niels Bohr (Nobel prize 1922) ignored the
trendy radiation experiments of the time and went
back to experimenting with gas discharge tubes.
He used a spectroscope to observe the light
generated from hydrogen.
• An electron would have to have a certain amount
of energy to keep spinning around the nucleus
and not spiral inward and crash.
• If the electron is given extra energy by the
discharge tube, it will “jump” up, and orbit farther
from the nucleus. When it falls back down, it gives
off the same energy, but in the form of light.
• Different amounts of energy = different colours of
light.
(Not exposed to radiation; Bohr died from regular heart failure, at age 77.)
 Bohr
Unexpectedly,
the spectroscope
broke the light
down into four
distinct colour
lines.

These emission spectra indicated that the

electron could not be excited to any amount of
energy, but rather could only occupy certain,
discrete, energy levels – which we call shells or
orbits.
Emission/absorption spectra has proven to be a characteristic property, like
a fingerprint, that can be used to identify unknown substances.
• Reading the periodic table: 7.3 periodic table –BR
diagrams.doc
• Drawing BR-diagrams: on board: 8.1/7.1 Families and
trends.doc