WHAT IS ATOM?

The smallest or the basic unit of

elements
 HISTORY OF THE ATOM
460 BC Democritus develops the idea of atoms

he pounded up materials in his pestle and mortar

until he had reduced them to smaller and smaller

particles which he called

ATOMOS
(greek for indivisible)
 ARISTOTLE
384-322BC
Aristotle
According to him:
and fellow Greeks
• According to him everything consisted of
4 elements, fire, water, earth, and air.
• His theory was accepted for a long period
of time.
 DALTON’S ATOMIC THEORY OF
MATTER

• John Dalton –(1766 – 1844)

- He is an English school teacher, amateur
meteorologist,
- He is the proponent of atomic theory of matter
(1803)
- He is the father of chemical theory
 Dalton’s Atomic Theory
Wrote the first atomic theory
1. All elements are composed of tiny
indivisible particles called atoms
2. Atoms of the same element are identical.
Atoms of any one element are different
from those of any other element.
3. Atoms of different elements combine in simple whole-
number ratios to form chemical compounds
4. In chemical reactions, atoms are combined, separated, or
rearranged – but never changed into atoms of another
element.
 Dalton was wrong about all elements of
the same type being identical
 Atoms of the same element can have
different numbers of neutrons.
 Thus, different mass numbers.

 These are called isotopes.

 The “Billiard Ball” Model
 proposed by John Dalton in 1804

 this theory proposed that matter was composed of

small, spherical particles

 but evidence was later gathered that matter was

composed of even smaller bits
 HISTORY OF THE ATOM

1898 John Thomson

Joseph
PLUM PUDDING OR RAISIN BUN MODEL
• Conducted Cathode ray tube
experiment
• found that atoms could sometimes
eject a far smaller negative particle
which he called an

ELECTRON
 HISTORY OF THE ATOM
1904
Thompson develops the idea that an atom was made up of electrons

scattered unevenly within an elastic sphere surrounded by a soup of

positive charge to balance the electron's charge

like plums surrounded by pudding.

PLUM PUDDING /
RAISIN BUN
MODEL
Thomson: “Plum Pudding” or “Chocolate
Chip Cookie” Model
 using available data on the atom, J.J. Thomson came
up with the idea of having charges embedded with
Dalton’s Billiard Balls
 Also used cathode ray experiment to discover the
existance of the electron

positive negative
(evenly distributed) “chocolate”
“dough”
part

note: this model kept Dalton’s key ideas intact

 Conclusions from the Study of the
Electron:
A. Cathode rays have identical properties
regardless of the element used to produce them.
All elements must contain identically charged
electrons.
B. Atoms are neutral, so there must be positive
particles in the atom to balance the negative
charge of the electrons
C. Electrons have so little mass that atoms must
contain other particles that account for most of
the mass
 HISTORY OF THE ATOM
1910 Ernest Rutherford

EMPTY SPACE MODEL

• Performed the GOLD FOIL

EXPERIMENT and discovered

NUCLEUS
Surmised atoms are made
of mostly empty space
 gold foil
helium nuclei

Gold foil
experiment

He fired Helium nuclei at a piece of gold foil which was only a few

atoms thick.
They found that while most of the helium nuclei passed through
the foil, a small number were deflected and, to their surprise, some
helium nuclei bounced straight back.
Gold Foil Experiment

• Particles shot through thin sheet of gold

• Most shots went straight through
• A small amount were deflected
• Hence… The atoms must be made of mostly empty space with a
small dense nucleus
Further explanation of Nuclear Model
 If previous models were correct alpha particles would
have passed straight through the gold
 Rutherford’s problem:
In the following pictures, there is a target hidden by a
cloud. To figure out the shape of the target, we shot
some beams into the cloud and recorded where the
beams came out. Can you figure out the shape of the
target?

Target Target
#1 #2
 The Answers:

Target #1 Target #2
Nuclear Model
 Rutherford found that most (99%) of the alpha particles that he shot
at the gold went straight through
 From these experiments Rutherford concluded that the atom had a
dense positive core, with the rest composed of mostly empty space with
the occasional negatively charged electron

-
-
-
+

- -
note: this model completely changed the definition of atom
 Rutherford’s Findings
* Most of the particles passed right through
* A few particles were deflected
* VERY FEW were greatly deflected

“Like howitzer shells bouncing

off of tissue paper!”
Conclusions:
#1 The nucleus is small
#2 The nucleus is dense
#3 The nucleus is positively
charged
Rutherford’s new evidence allowed him to
propose a more detailed model with a central
nucleus.

He suggested that the positive charge was all

in a central nucleus. With this holding the
electrons in place by electrical attraction

However, this was not the end of the

story.
 Niels Bohr
 Discovered that electrons
exist in several distinct
layers or levels
 “Jimmy Neutron Model”
 Travel around nucleus like
planets travel around sun
 Electrons Orbit
 Electrons can jump
between levels with energy
being added/released
 ORBIT MODEL / PLANETARY MODEL
1913
studied under Rutherford at the Victoria University
in Manchester.

Bohr refined Rutherford's idea by adding that the

electrons were in orbits. Rather like planets

orbiting the sun. With each orbit only able to
contain a set number of electrons.
Bohr’s Atom

electrons in orbits

nucleus
 Shell
proton

+
N
-
+
- N

electron neutron

What do these particles consist of?

 Bohr Model
 Niels Bohr proposed that electrons revolve around
the central positive nucleus (like planets in the
solar system)

negative electrons

3 positive protons
Bohr Model

 Bohr also suggested that the electrons can only

revolve in certain orbits, or at certain energy levels
(ie, the energy levels are quantized)

no energy level in between steps

THE HYDROGEN LINE SPECTRUM

Continues spectrum is produce when white light

passed through a prism.
Hydrogen line is produce when emission spectrum
passed through a prism representing specific
wavelength
Atomic Structure
 In the nucleus there
are two types of
particles: Protons
and Neutrons
 Around the nucleus
there are electrons
Practice
 The number of protons determines the element
 How many protons are in each of the following
elements?
 He:
 F:
 Ga:
 Be:
 The number of electrons = the number of protons
Periodic Table
Atomic Number = Number of Protons or
Number of Electrons
Elemental Notation
 Rather than writing out the element’s information
each time, we use a special notation to organize
information.
 Mass Number
 Atomic Number
 Elemental Symbol
The Numbers
 The mass number of an element is the number of protons + neutrons.
 The atomic number of an element is the number of protons the
element has.
 To find the number of neutrons, subtract the atomic number from the
mass number.

222
Rn
Mass Number

Atomic Number 86
Number of 136 Element
Neutrons Symbol
Isotopes
 Isotope- Atoms with the same number of protons but
different number of neutrons.
 Atoms of the same element have the same number of
protons
 Atoms of the same element can have different
numbers of neutrons

11 12 13 14
6 C 6 C 6 C 6 C
Ions
 In the nucleus there are protons and neutrons
 Protons are positive
 Neutrons are neutral

 If the nucleus has 3 protons it has a charge of 3+

Neutral Atom
In a neutral atom, there are equal
numbers of protons and electrons

Each positive
is cancelled
by a negative.
Ions
 In an ion, there are unequal numbers of protons and
electrons

3 + charge
4 – charge
1 – charge
Ions
 In an ion, there are unequal numbers of protons and
electrons

3 + charge
2 – charge
1 + charge
What is the charge of an ion that
has 29 protons and 32 electrons?
What is the charge of an ion that
has 12 protons and 13 electrons?
What is the charge of an ion that
has 54 protons and 52 electrons?