The History of the Atomic Model In other words, the old guys who came up with the atom.
Democritus 460 BC - 370 BC A Greek philosopher proposed that all matter was composed of indivisible hard balls called atoms (Greek for uncuttable). n Unfortunately he was unpopular and ignored. n
John Dalton 1803 Billiard Ball Model : viewed the atom as a small solid sphere. n But he got the ball rolling again to study the atom. n
Joseph John Thomson 1897 Plumb Pudding Model: Proposed that the atom was a sphere of positive energy with negative particles imbedded throughout. n He was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1906 for discovering the electron. n
Ernest Rutherford 1910 n Solar System Model: discovered that the atom is mostly empty space with a dense positively charged nucleus surrounded by negative electrons.
How Did He Know He beamed particles through gold foil and detected them as flashes of light. n Most of the alpha particles went straight through the foil, but some were deflected by the foil and hit a spot on a screen placed off to one side. n
Neils Bohr 1913 n Proposed that electrons traveled in circular orbits and that only certain orbits were allowed.
Erwin Schrodinger 1926 n Electron Cloud Model: Using math Erwin found that an atom consists of a dense nucleus composed of protons and neutrons surrounded by electrons that exist in different clouds at the various energy levels.