Dalton drew upon the Ancient Greek idea of atoms (the word ‘atom’

John
comes from the Greek ’atomos’ meaning indivisible). His theory stated
that atoms are indivisible, those of a given elements are identical, and
compounds are combinations of different types of atoms.

Joseph John
Thomson discovered electrons (which he called ‘corpuscle’) in atoms in
1897 for which he won a Nobel Prize. He subsequently produce the ‘plum
pudding’ model of an atom. It shows the atom as composed of electrons
scattered throughout a spherical cloud of positive charge.

Ernest
Rutherford fired positively charged alpha particles at a thin sheet of gold
foil. Most passed through with little deflection, but some deflected at large John
angles. This was only possible if the atom was mostly empty space, with
the positive charge concentrated in the center: the nucleus

Niels
Bohr modified Rutherford’s model of the atom by stating that electron
moved around nucleus in orbits of fixed sizes of energies. Electron energy John
in this model was quantised; electrons could not occupy values of energy
between the fixed energy levels

Erwin
Schrödinger stated that electrons do not move in set paths around the
nucleus, but in waves. It is impossible to know the exact location of the John
electrons; instead, we have ‘clouds of probability’ called orbitals, in which
we are more likely to find an electron.

Chadwick discovered the neutron. The neutron helps balance out protons
James
in the nucleus of an atom.
John

JOHN DALTON’S THREE LAWS OF SUBSTANCE AND CHEMICAL REACTIONS

1. Law of Conservation of Mass. If atoms have definite masses and cannot be divided or destroyed, then a chemical
change is simply a rearrangement of atoms. Their total mass should be the same before and after the chemical reaction.
2. Law of Definite Proportions. If atoms of different elements combine in a definite ratio whenever they form a certain
compound, the ratio of the masses in the compound should also be fixed. It will depend only on the masses in the different
atoms and the ratio in which they combine.
3. Law of Multiple proportions. Atoms of different elements always combine in a whole-number ratios.

SUB-ATOMIC PARTICLES
a. Proton (p or p+) – fundamental positive particle found in the nucleus of the atom (discovered by Ernest Rutherford).
b. Electron (e-) – fundamental negative particle found in the nucleus of the atom (discovered by Joseph John Thomson).
c. Neutron (n or n0) – neutral particle found in the nucleus of an atom (discovered by James Chadwick).

PRESENT CONCEPT OF THE ATOM

- Modern atom electrons travel not in orbits. But exist as clouds of electric charge within
“orbitals” that define regions of space with a high probability of containing the electron.