Development of the Atom

1803 - John Dalton - Atomic Theory

1. Matter is made up of indivisible atoms.
2. All atoms of an element are identical.
3. Atoms are neither created nor destroyed.
4. Atoms of different elements have different weights and chemical
properties.
5. Atoms of different elements combine in simple whole numbers to
form compounds.

1830 - Michael Faraday

Set up a pair of metal plates sealed in a glass tube. The tube was filled with a
gas, and the metal plates were connected to a series of batteries.

As the pressure of the gas decreased, the gas began to glow.

Julius Plucker (1858) noticed that only one end emitted light.
o

He also changed the position of the patch of glass that glowed by

bringing
a magnet close to the tube.

Conclusion: The effect of the magnetic field as evidence that

whatever
produced this glow was electrically charged.

Cathode - metal plate connected to the negative end

Anode - metal plate connected to the positive end

1869 - Johannes Hittorf

Found that when a solid object was placed between the cathode and anode, a
shadow was cast on the end of the tube across from the cathode.
Conclusion: Some beam or ray is given off by the cathode - subsequently
called the tubes cathode-ray tubes.

1879 - William Crookes

Developed a better vacuum pump that allowed him to produce

cathode-ray
tubes with a smaller residual gas pressure.

Conclusion: Cathode r0ays are negatively charged by studying

deflection
of cathode rays by magnetic fields.

1897 - J.J. Thompson

Found that cathode rays could be deflected by an electric field

Showed that cathode "rays" were actually particles

Found the charge to mass ratio of the particles to be

approximately
108 Coulomb (C) per gram.

Same charge to mass ratio regardless of metal used for

cathode/anode
or gas used to fill the tube.

Conclusion: Particles were a universal component of matter.

Electron - (originally called corpuscles by Thompson) particles

given off by the cathode; fundamental unit of negative electricity

Raisin Pudding Model o

Matter is electrically neutral and electrons are much

lighter than atoms.

Conclusion: There must be positively charged

particles which also must carry the mass of the
atom. Dalton's model is now incorrect because
atoms are divisible.

Raisin Pudding
Model

1895 - William Conrad Roentgen

Discovered x-rays while using cathode-ray tubes. Found that x-rays

could pass
through solid objects.

1899 - Ernst Rutherford

Studied absorption of radioactivity.
Alpha radiation - positive charge - absorbed by a few hundredths of a
cm or metal foil
Beta radiation - negative charge - could pass through 100x as much foil
before it was absorbed

Gamma rays - no charge - could penetrate several cm of lead

1907-1911 - Rutherford updated Thomson's Raisin

Pudding Model of the atom.

Studied the deflection of alpha particles as they were

targeted
at thin gold foil sheets.
o

Most of the alpha particles penetrated straight

through.

However few were deflected at slight angles.

Even fewer (only about 1 in 20,000) were

deflected at
angles over 90 .

Conclusion: The positive charge and mass of an atom were concentrated

in the center and only made up a small fraction of the total volume. He
named this concentrated center the nucleus (Latin for little nut).

Rutherford was also able to estimate the charge of an atom by studying the
deflection of alpha particles. He found that the positive charge on the atom was
approximately half of the atomic weight.

1908-1917 - Robert Millikan - Oil-drop experiment

J.J. Thomson had previously hypothesized that the mass of a single

electron
was at least 1000 times smaller than that of the smallest atom.

Millikan measured the charge on an electron with his oil-drop

apparatus.

An "atomizer" from a
perfume bottle sprayed
oil or water droplets into
the sample chamber.
Some of the droplets fell
through the pinhole
into an area between two
plates (one positive
and one negative). This
middle chamber was
ionized by x-rays.
Particles that did not
capture any electrons fell
to the bottom plate
due to gravity. Particles
that did capture one
or more electrons were
attracted to the
positive upper plate and
either floated upward
or fell more slowly.

Conclusion: The charge on a drop was always a multiple of 1.59 x 10 19

Coulombs. He proved Thomson's hypothesis that the mass of an electron
is at least 1000 times smaller than the smallest atom.

1913 - A. van den Broek

Suggested that the positive charge on atoms should be compared to their atomic
numbers, not their atomic weights.
o At the time, atomic number (Z) only specified an element's
location on the periodic table. Today, the atomic number is, by
definition, the number of protons in an atom.

1914 - H. G. J. Moseley

Studied the frequencies of the x-rays given off by cathode-ray tubes

when electrons strike the anode.

Found that there was a relationship between the frequencies (v) of the
x-rays given off by the cathode-ray tube and the atomic number of the
metal used to form the anode:

Conclusion: He argued that the frequencies of the x-rays should depend on the
charge on the nucleus emitting these x-rays. Therefore, the atomic number was
equal to the positive charge (charge on the nucleus) of an atom.

1920 - Rutherford proposed the name "proton" for the positively charged
particles in the nucleus of an atom. At the same time, he also proposed that the
nucleus also contained electrically neutral particles which accounted for the remaining
mass of the atom. He called this yet unknown particle the "neutron".

1932 - James Chadwick

Proved that neutrons, neutral particles in the nucleus that made up

approximately
half the mass of an atom, did exist.

Summary of Subatomic Particles

Particle Symbol Charge
Electron

-1

Mass
0.0005486 amu

Proton
Neutron

p+
n

+1
0

1.007276 amu
1.008665 amu

Atomic Rules

The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom is equal to the atomic number (Z).
In a neutral atom, the number of electrons is equal to the number of protons.

The mass number (M) of an atom is equal to the sum of the number of
protons and neutrons in the nucleus.

The number of neutrons is equal to the difference between the mass number (M)
and the atomic number (Z).

Atomic number: protons (and electrons if neutral)

Mass number: protons + neutrons (neutrons = mass number - atomic number)