Atom timeline

By sowenz

  • John Dalton

    Came up with the atomic theory: all matter is composed of atoms.

  • Antoine Lavoisier

    Provided the formula for the conservation of matter and distinguished between an element and a compound.

  • William Crookes

    Invented the Crookes’ tube and discovered the properties of cathode rays.

  • G.J. Stoney

    Proposed that electricity was made of negative particles: "electrons".

  • W.K. Roentgen

    Discovered x-rays while experimenting with cathode-ray tubes

  • J.J. Thomson

    Discovered the electron and made the plum-pudding model of the atom.

  • Pierre and Marie Curie

    Radioactive materials cause atoms to randomly break down and realese radiation in the form of energy and subatomic particles.

  • Albert Einstein

    Published the equation E=mc 2

  • Robert Millikan

    Discovered the electric charge of the electron

  • Neils Bohr

    Stated that the electrons moved around the nucleus in successively large orbits and that atoms absorb or emit radiation only when the electrons abruptly jump into different orbits then back to the original

  • Francis Aston

    Discovered the existence of isotopes through the use of a mass spectrograph.

  • Erwin Shroedinger

    Introduced the Shroedinger Equation, a wave equation that describes the form of the probability waves that regulate the motion of small particles and how these waves are changed by external influences.

  • James Chadwick

    Discovered the neutron.

  • Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner

    Discovered nuclear fission: when the nucleus of an atom breaks up into two separate nuclei

  • Ernest Rutherford

    Used the results of his gold-foil experiment to establish that the nucleus was dense, tiny and positively charged. He also established that the electrons were located outside the nucleus.