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300
Democritus
The first person to desrcibe the small particles that make up matter and calling them "atoms". -
505
Aristotle
Decide that there were no such things as "atoms", which took Democritus's ideas about matter back to the start. -
John Dalton
The person to make up the actual "atomic theory". Brought back the word "atom" meaning the smallest particle of matter. -
J.J Thompson
Physicist J.J. Thompson (1856 – 1940) designed a series of CRT experiments at Cambridge to determine the ratio of the particle’s charge to its mass. -
Ernest Rutheford
Ernest Rutherford (1871 – 1937) studied how positively charged α-particles interacted with solid matter. He designed an experiment to see if α-particles would be deflected as they passed through a thin sheet of gold foil. -
Robert Millikan
American Physicist Robert Millikan (1868 – 1953) designed an oil drop apparatus to determine the charge of the electron.