Atomic Theory: the Understanding of Elemental Properties

The world of science is a natural phenomenon, it being the way of life. It makes up a copious amount of the information we know from laws to discoveries and theories of specific details that make our world and its properties understandable. One of these theories is a major theory about the nature of matter and what everything in the world is made up of atoms. This is the atomic theory.

Throughout the course of history, there have been many different perspectives on the atomic theory and scientists have accepted a number of atomic structural models. Our perceptions of atoms have throughout time, constantly changed, from ancient times of philosophy and science to modern scientific times. As time advances, everything else adjusts to it whether it is good or bad. Life improves, life declines but one thing is constant and that is science. It is always rising and improving, increasing in knowledge and structure. However, science is made up of many things that derive from history and is one of the first stepping stones of science and that is the atomic theory.

TimeLine

1. The atomic theory all began in ancient times somewhere around Greece in 442 BC. Democritus, a Greek philosopher, co-originated the thought with his teacher, Leucippus that all matter is composed of indivisible elements creating the amateur/developing theory factor.
2. In 1704 after a while, Isaac Newton was the first to theorize about the atomic theory. He thought that there was a mechanical universe with small, solid masses in motion that existed and that we live in it.
3. However, the atomic theory was not touched on for a long time only being picked back up in 1803 by John Dalton and his theory of atoms, creating the first official atomic theory. John Dalton was a British chemist and physicist who developed a theory that matter is simply composed of atoms of different weights and is combined in ratios by weight. He also proposed that these atoms are spherical, always in motion. Or the atomic theory.
4. Until 63 years later in 1870 it was never touched. In 1870, Sir William Crookes constructed a primitive cathode ray tube, which later became a basis for television. A primitive cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube that contains one or more electron guns and a phosphorescent screen. It is used to display images and modulates, accelerates, and deflects electron beams onto the screen to create the television image effect.
5. In 1886, Rutherford discovered protons which through scientific discovery, it has been accepted as the particle that contributes to the positive charge of an atom
6. In 1898, Pierre and Marie Curie came up with the idea of radian, energy, and the atom. They thought that radioactive particles case atoms to break down, then they release radiation that takes the form of energy and subatomic particles.
7. In the same year, JJ Thomson discovered electrons by using Crookes’ cathode rays.
8. It was a new century, the beginning of the 20th century, 1900 where Max Planck introduced an early form of the quantum theory. He stated that electromagnetic energy could only be emitted in quantized form. Quanta nowadays are called photons by physicists which are bundles of electromagnetic energy being the basic unit that makes up all light.
9. In 1905, Albert Einstein creates a general and unique theory of relativity hypothesizing about the particle nature of light. This was the basis of nuclear energy.
10. In 1908, Robert Millikan was able to measure the charge of a single electron. This presently is known as the elementary charge is one of the fundamental physical constants which in turn relates to atoms and the atomic theory.
11. The next year in 1909, Ernest Rutherford who is commonly called the father of nuclear physics, developed a theory for the structure of the atom. He used gold foil for his experiment which allowed him to observe the scattering of alpha particles which demonstrated for the first time the existence of the atomic nucleus.
12. In 1913, Neils Bohr improves the atomic model by developing onto it. He does this by discovering that electrons travel in orbits around the nucleus and chemical properties are determined by how many electrons are in the outer orbits. He also integrated the Planck quantum theory, stating that when electrons change orbits they emit a quantum of discrete energy.
13. In 1926 Erwin Schrodinger describes electrons moving in waveform, depicting electron changes with math. He achieves this with math because he created an equation which describes how the quantum state of a system changes with time.
14. In 1931, the neutron is discovered by James Chadwick. The neutron being a component to the nucleus brought the atomic theory one step closer to becoming a strong fact. This discovery also makes producing elements heavier than uranium in lab allowing further progression via testing and experimenting.
15. In 1938, Otto Hahn, who is regarded as the father of nuclear chemistry discovers and develops nuclear fission along with Lise Meitner.
16. In 1942, Enrico Fermi created the first man-made nuclear reactor.
17. Finally, in 1951, Glenn Seaborg makes many discoveries of the transuranium elements and many advancements in nuclear medicine. 

Diagrams of the Atom

Democritus Atom theory – The theory of Democritus is that everything is composed of “atoms” which are physically indivisible there lies empty space; that atoms are indestructible, and have always been and always will be in motion; that there is an infinite number of atoms and of kinds of atoms JJ Thomson conducted experiments with cathode ray tubes to show that all atoms contain tiny negatively charged subatomic particles or electrons. Thomson proposed the plum pudding model of the atom which had negatively charged electrons embedded within a positively charged “soup”. Rutherford’s model of an atom shows that an atom is a mostly empty space with electrons orbiting a fixed, positively charged nucleus in the set, predictable paths

The Niels Bohr atomic model shows the atom to be a small, positively charged nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons. Bohr was the first to discover that electrons travel in separate orbits around the nucleus and that the number of electrons in the outer orbit determines the properties of an element. This is important as it explains to us that electrons or negative charges orbit around the atom’s nucleus an energy level. It also describes that electrons can change energy levels.

Modern Electron Cloud Model was developed in 1925 by Erwin Schrodinger and Werner Heisenberg. The model is a way to help visualize the most probable position of electrons in an atom as it is at a certain distance from the nucleus and that it is always under normal conditions. Currently the accepted model of an atom.

Define Terms:

Atomic Number: The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom, which is a characteristic of a chemical element and determines its place in the periodic table.

Mass number: The total number of protons and neutrons in a nucleus.

Modern View on Atom Table

Particle Symbol Atomic Mass Unit (amu) Relative Charge Location within atom proton e- (minus is like square root) 1.007276 +1 nucleus neutron P+ 1.008665 0 nucleus Electron N(o) 0.0005486 -1 Orbits around nucleus.

Our understanding of the structures of atoms and properties of elements has changed frequently over the course of time. This was able to occur due to the exponential advancement of technology and technological devices. Like life, science everything advances and it was not just the materialistic things of science that changed but also the knowledge of it and the people who learned or promoted this information. Basically, the people changed over time that was related to the science world with their theories, thoughts, and methods, everyone is fascinating, unique, and wondrous with their discoveries and ideas. When new evidence and discoveries come along, everything apart of it changes with it, from its idea, and premise to its model and conclusion.

Specifically, advancements and changes have changed a lot. The advancement began when Democritus pondered about what are the small things when things are broken down. Then it changed into a thought of expanding on this broad idea and thinking it into more examples and realistic items such as sodium and food. Technology finally comes about, with the cathode rays revealing the electron charge and where electrons are in an atom, (orbiting around the nucleus.) To find what an electron charge was, Thomson had the beam interact with electric and magnetic fields which allowed him to determine the mass of the electron charge. He also discovered that is had a small mass and negative charge. Another advancement of technology for the structural understanding of atoms was experimentation such as the golden foil experiment. It was an experiment of shooting positive alpha particles at this positive atom. After shooting, the alpha particles go through the foil and the others bounced back. Thus, creating a prompt and fault in the current plum pudding model, advancing the understanding of the molecule structure of the atom, refining it. One of the final advancements in the invention was the spectrometer revealing the relationship between the atom and light. The theory of it develops through quantum mechanics and reveals the structure, identity, and environment of the atom due to the atomic emission spectroscopy.

This advancement thus ties together why the atomic theory was able to occur and the journey that came with it as well the understanding of elemental properties.

The understanding of elemental properties tremendously benefited daily lives and cultures in modern, ancient, or historical times. It helped ancient and historical cultures and periods of time similarly, whether it was the environment, atmosphere, war/weapons, and daily lives but in general, it was used to a basic extent, the only fascinating uses would be in weapons and war. Examples of these could be in the material of the metal to create sturdy armor and protection or a strong offensive sword. Elemental property understanding allowed security and stronger shelter/ protection as it wasn’t wood and mud. Finally, the most fascinating discovery through war-like culture was the invention of gunpowder, is made from a combination of elements. Gunpowder was a strong weapon and it gave ancient empires huge advantages as it is technically considered like technology as it provided new weapons like flame throwers, rockets,s and explosions. Something completely different to cavalry, swords, and shields. Different elements are used for different purposes in whether or not which is more beneficial for the empire/community’s purpose. Certain materials would be better at different fields and it really depends on the deciding factor, the tribe, and what they want as I have provided above. Thus, this is the way ancient and historical communities used their knowledge of elemental properties as an advancement of basic necessities for benefit and advantage. In modern times, however, the use of understanding of elemental properties became old news and was fully understood. Modern times did not use this understanding to its minimal restrictions and pushed it beyond its limits, constantly thinking outside the box whether it was complicated non-essential inventions or complicated inventions that were used daily in our lives such as cotton, paper, and other daily material. It can also be used to create a global and beneficial influence for the world such as medicine and knowledge for the education of young bright minds. It was not just Ancient, Historical, or modern nations that used the understanding of elemental properties to their full advantage but also the indigenous. The Aborigines in Australia. They used this understanding for their daily lives such as improving the natural resources they had. They had to improve it in order to live with shelter, security, protection, and food, and to do this they had to understand the natural material properties. Properties such as hardness, flexibility, absorbency, strength, buoyancy, permeability, malleability, and elasticity. These thus applied to their daily lives of manufacturing tools and which material to use, improving materials such as walls, houses and making it function better. Aborigines also used this understanding for their food and agriculture, to create new different plants vegetables or better ones that provided better benefits to the body, such as the understanding of vitamins and nutrients like fiber and proteins. Finally, the aborigines used their understanding for wood and bark through water steaming to create a better material in order to make fires, weapons, and more.

In conclusion, the understanding of elemental properties, no matter the time period was used constantly as an essential factor for life. Whether it ranged from preference, comfort, necessities or global benefit, this understanding has had its fair share throughout time, being regarded as something extremely important to not just the advancement of cultures but the advancement of humanity. It may be simple, minimal, basic or even complicated, max capacity, and globally beneficial, but it will still be part of humanity’s advancing story and one of the reasons it was even able to advance this far. The understanding of elemental properties will always be with us, with science, with knowledge from beginning to end, and it is the core of science, the core of knowledge, the core of humanity, and what makes us different. An advancing advancement through time.

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