12.20.16
Franey//Adams
Chem
P.6
Going back through history the experiments, discoveries, and works of past scientists such as Democritus, Dalton, Thomson, and Rutherford have afforded us the opportunity to draw from their ideas to formulate a modern view and accurate understanding of the atom. Thanks to the evolution of atomic models.
In the beginning, Democritus viewed the atom as a tiny, solid, round sphere, that was unable to be cut. He created the first model of an atom, that essentially depicted it as a solid sphere, free of electrons, protons, or neutrons that looks similar to a billiard ball. Next came Dalton, he believed that every element has its own specific atom. He also shared the belief that atoms could not be spilt, …show more content…
In these experiments Thomson used a Cathode Ray Tube and a magnet, he placed the negative end of the magnet near the beam, and took note that when the negative end approached it, the beam deflected away. This experiment proved that there were different charges. Rutherford also employed important experiments, such as the gold foil experiment. In this experiment Rutherford shot particles at a piece of gold foil and noticed that while most of the particles passed through the foil there were some that ricocheted back, and bounced off of it. This proved that atoms were mostly empty space, that contained a very small, positive nucleus, that made the particles bounce back.
With all of these documented experiments, and discoveries we have been able to learn and draw new conclusions about the atom. We have come a long ways since the beginning when the atom was viewed as unsplittable. Now we understand quarks, that are most stable as protons, and neutrons, which can bind together to create hadrons. We have created the large hadron collider which is the world's biggest particle accelerator. We also know that strong force is what binds quarks together in clusters, and weak force as the force that decays nuclear