#WHAT IS ATOMIC THEORY SERIES#

However, by the late 1890s, he began conducting experiments using a cathode ray tube known as the Crookes’ Tube. During the 1880s and 1890s, his work largely revolved around developing mathematical models for chemical processes, the transformation of energy in mathematical and theoretical terms, and electromagnetism. Thompson) was an English physicist and the Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge from 1884 onwards.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons/D-Kuru Thompson’s Experiments: Lateral view of a sort of a Crookes tube with a standing cross. This theory expanded on the laws of conversation of mass and definite proportions – formulated by the end of the 18th century – and remains one of the cornerstones of modern physics and chemistry.

#WHAT IS ATOMIC THEORY SERIES#

Through a series of experiments involving gases, Dalton went on to develop what is known as Dalton’s Atomic Theory. For example, in the early 1800s, English scientist John Dalton used the concept of the atom to explain why chemical elements reacted in certain observable and predictable ways.ĭalton began with the question of why elements reacted in ratios of small whole numbers and concluded that these reactions occurred in whole-number multiples of discrete units – i.e. It was not until the 19th century that the theory of atoms became articulated as a scientific matter, with the first evidence-based experiments being conducted. Various atoms and molecules as depicted in John Dalton’s A New System of Chemical Philosophy (1808). However, this theory was more of a philosophical concept than a scientific one. The term “atom” was coined in ancient Greece and gave rise to the school of thought known as “atomism”. The earliest known examples of atomic theory come from ancient Greece and India, where philosophers such as Democritus postulated that all matter was composed of tiny, indivisible and indestructible units. Henceforth, scientists would understand that atoms were themselves composed of smaller units of matter and that all atoms interacted with each other through many different forces. Not only did it incorporate new discoveries, such as the existence of the electron, it also introduced the notion of the atom as a non-inert, divisible mass. Though defunct by modern standards, the Plum Pudding Model represents an important step in the development of atomic theory. Based on its appearance, which consisted of a “sea of uniform positive charge” with electrons distributed throughout, Thompson’s model came to be nicknamed the “Plum Pudding Model”.

As part of the revolution that was taking place at the time, Thompson proposed a model of the atom that consisted of more than one fundamental unit. Thompson in the late 19th an early 20th centuries. This was the basis of the atomic theory devised by English physicist J.J. From its humble beginnings as an inert, indivisible solid that interacts mechanically with other atoms, ongoing research and improved methods have led scientists to conclude that atoms are actually composed of even smaller particles that interact with each other electromagnetically. Ever since it was first proposed by Democritus in the 5th century BCE, the atomic model has gone through several refinements over the past few thousand years.

What is atomic theory