MadSci Network: Science History
Query:

Re: Who discovered the atom, and how?

Date: Thu Feb 22 06:37:38 2007
Posted By: Adil Bukhari, Undergraduate, Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park
Area of science: Science History
ID: 1171969132.Sh
Message:

M.B.,
All of the scientists which you listed in your question did help to discover the atom or explain what it is used for. Here's a timeline of events; it is very basic, though, so you might want to look for more information for your website.

450 B.C.E. - Democritus suggests that atoms make up everything, and that they can combine to form any object which we know.

1803 A.D. - John Dalton expands on Democritus's idea, showing how atoms allow for simple reaction ratios. Each atom could group up and form a compound with other atoms.

--The events after Dalton's proposal helped to clarify what exactly an atom was.--

1897 - J.J. Thomson discovers the electron, thereby showing that atoms can be broken down into different parts.

1909 - Ernest Rutherford and 1913 - Niels Bohr : The work of both of these men showed that electrons were slightly bound to an atom.

1924 - Erwin Schrodinger helps to prove the Exclusion Principle - where it is impossible to know the location of an electron if one knows its spin, and vice versa. This gave rise to the electron cloud model of the atom.

So there you have it! Remember, this is still only a very basic timeline, so you should do some more research on your own.

Note: I used this website (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom).

--A.B.


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