Atomic Timeline

  • 440 BCE

    Plato

    Plato
    Plato's atomic theory is that solid forms of matter are composed of indivisible elements shaped like triangles.
  • 400 BCE

    Democritus

    Democritus
    Democritus' theory stated that all matter was solid, hard, and indestructible. It moved in infinite numbers through empty space until it stopped.
  • Robert Boyle

    Robert Boyle
    Robert Boyle believed that everything was composed of very tiny particles
  • The Alchemists

    The Alchemists
    The Alchemists believed all metals were formed from two principles- mercury and sulfur
  • Antoine Lavoisier

    Antoine Lavoisier
    Lavoisier's theory was the law of conservation of mass explaining how matter is conserved by chemical changes.
  • John Dalton

    John Dalton
    John Daltons atomic theory stated that all matter is made of atoms and all atoms of a given element are identical in mass and properties.
  • Billiard Ball Model

    Billiard Ball Model
    The Billiard Ball Model, discovered by John Dalton, is an atom defined as a ball-like structure, as the concept of atomic numbers.
  • Amedeo Avogadro

    Amedeo Avogadro
    He discovered that equal volumes of gases at the same temperature and pressure contain the same number of molecules.
  • Dmitri Mendeleev

    Dmitri Mendeleev
    He discovered that elements arranged according to the value of their atomic weights present clear periodicity properties.
  • JJ Thompson

    JJ Thompson
    JJ Thompson believed that all atoms contain tiny negatively charged subatomic particles.
  • Pierre and Marie Curie

    Pierre and Marie Curie
    Pierre and Marie Curies' atomic theory was that powerful rays, or energy, gave off tiny particles from tiny atoms that were disintegrating inside elements.
  • Plum Pudding Model

    Plum Pudding Model
    The Plum Pudding Model, discovered by JJ Thomson, depicts the electrons as negatively charged particles embedded in a sea of positive charge.
  • Albert Einstein

    Albert Einstein
    Einstein's atomic theory states that any liquid is made up of molecules.
  • Robert Millikan

    Robert Millikan
    He believed that electrons had a discrete, quantifiable change compared to other subatomic particles.
  • Ernest Rutherford

    Ernest Rutherford
    Ernest Rutherford described the atom to have a tiny and dense positively charged core called the nucleus.
  • Neils Bohr

    Neils Bohr
    Neils Bohr's theory on hydrogen atoms, based on quantum theory, explains that some physical quantities only take discrete values.
  • Solar System Model

    Solar System Model
    The Solar System Model, discovered by Neils Bohr, is atoms consisting of a number of electrons in orbits around the nucleus.
  • Henry G.J. Mosely

    Henry G.J. Mosely
    Henry discovered that atomic numbers are the fundamental feature that describes an element.
  • Erwin Schrodinger

    Erwin Schrodinger
    Erwin's theory states that the behavior of electrons within atoms could be explained by treating them mathematically as matter waves.
  • Electron Cloud Model

    Electron Cloud Model
    The Electron Cloud Model, discovered by Erwin Schrodinger, is the area around an atom's nucleus where electrons are likely to be found.
  • James Chadwick

    James Chadwick
    James Chadwick contributed to the atomic theory by discovering the neutron.