Evolution of the atom model

  • John Dalton

    -Matter made of small indivisible atoms
    -Atoms can’t be subdivided, created, destroyed
    -Atoms of different elements can form compounds
  • Marie Curie

    -Discovered radioactivity, and resulted in dying to it.
    -Received 2 nobel prizes, one for physics and one for chemistry
  • JJ Thomson

    -An atom is electrically neutral, no charge.
    -Both positive and negative charges are equal in the atom
    -An atom is made out of a sphere of positive charges with negatively charged electron embedded in it
  • Robert Milikan

    -Precisely determined the magnitude of the electron charge
    -Received Nobel Prize for “his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoletric effect
  • Ernest Rutherford

    -Atoms are mostly empty space
    -Most of the mass is concentrated in the center of the atom, which is called the nucleus
    -Electrons are located outside the nucleus.
  • Neils Bohr

    -Electrons orbit the nucleus in orbits that have specific shape and size
    -The energy of the orbit is related to its size. The lowest energy is found in the smallest orbit.
    -Electrons move in orbits, they move between shells when gaining or losing energy
  • Erwin Schrodinger

    -Electrons don’t move around the nucleus in orbits
    -Electrons exist in a cloud with specific energy levels
    -The electron cloud exists in a region with negative charges only, surrounding the nucleus.
  • James Chadwick

    -Discovered the neutron and its mass
    -Worked with Ernest Rutherford
  • Werner Heisenburg

    -Awarded Nobel prize in 1932
    -Involved with the theory of quantum mechanics