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400 BCE
Democritus
Democritus first stated the ideas of atoms. He thought that matter is made of tiny solid particles, and that if you took a piece of bread and kept on cutting it up at one point it couldn't be cut anymore. One interesting fact about him is that he was known as the laughing philosopher because in most photos he is laughing -
John Dalton
Mr. Dalton was a school teacher in England who decided to take up chemistry as a hobby. Back then rich people took up chemistry as a hobby. In 1808 Dalton created the first model of an atom. He lived from 1776 to 1844. -
JJ Thomson
Thomson was a major help in the science world. He won the noble prize in physics in 1906. He discovered the atoms that had negatively charged particles which he named electrons. He lived in the United Kingdom. He also enrolled at Trinity College at the age of 14. -
Ernest Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford was a man, that was born on August 30, 1871. He died on October 19, 1937. He did an expierment that involved shooting lasers into a piece of gold foil. It showed when it bounced off that atoms are mostly empty space. He also found that the nucleus contained protons, which are positively charged atoms. -
James Chadwick
Chadwick was partners with Rutherford when he did the experiment with the laser and gold foil. He was born on October 20, 1891, in the United Kingdom. He later died on July 24, 1974, in the United Kingdom. Chadwick discovered the neutron two decades later after working with Rutherford. An interesting fact about him is that he received that Hughes Medal of the Royal Society in 1932. -
Niels Bohr
Bohr used Ernest's data to prove that electrons move around the nucleus in energy levels. He said Electrons were like the planets going around the sun. He was born on October 7, 1885, in Denmark. He died on November 18, 1962, in Denmark. One fact about him is that Bohr was gifted a house that had free beer. -
Werner Heisenberg
Heisenberg was born on December 5, 1901, in Germany. He died on February 1, 1976, in Germany. One fact about him is that he went to the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich for his education. He discovered the theory of quantum mechanics in 1925 -
Erwin Schrodinger
He was born on August 12, 1887, in Austria. He died on January 4, 1961, in Austria. One interesting fact about him is that he grew up bilingual. He discovered the quantum mechanical model in 1926.
