Evolution of the Atomic Theories

Democritus

450 BCE

The theory of Democritus held that everything is composed of "atoms", which are physically, but not geometrically, indivisible; that between atoms, there lies empty space; that atoms are indestructible, and have always been and always will be in motion; that there is an infinite number of atoms and of kinds of atoms, which differ in shape and size.

Dalton

1806

The most important of all Dalton's investigations are concerned with the atomic theory in chemistry. While his name is inseparably associated with this theory, the origin of Dalton's atomic theory is not fully understood.

Thomson

1904

In Thomson's model, the atom is composed of electrons surrounded by a soup of positive charge to balance the electrons' negative charges, like negatively charged “plums” surrounded by positively charged “pudding”. The 1904 Thomson model was disproved by Hans Geiger's and Ernest Marsden's 1909 gold foil experiment.

Rutherford

1911

Rutherford overturned Thomson's model in 1911 with his well-known gold foil experiment in which he demonstrated that the atom has a tiny and heavy nucleus. Rutherford designed an experiment to use the alpha particles emitted by a radioactive element as probes to the unseen world of atomic structure.

Bohr

1913

Bohr atomic model, description of the structure of atoms, especially that of hydrogen, proposed (1913) by the Danish physicist Niels Bohr. The Bohr model of the atom, a radical departure from earlier, classical descriptions, was the first that incorporated quantum theory and was the predecessor of wholly quantum-mechanical models.

Schrodinger

1926

In 1926 Erwin Schrödinger, an Austrian physicist, took the Bohr atom model one step further. Schrödinger used mathematical equations to describe the likelihood of finding an electron in a certain position. This atomic model is known as the quantum mechanical model of the atom.