Preview

Dalton Rutherford's Atomic Theory

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1691 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Dalton Rutherford's Atomic Theory
Of all of the many scientists who played a major role in the formation of the atomic theory, it is believed that Dalton, Rutherford, Thompson, Bohr, and Planck are the five most influential. The research of this theory has gone on for many years and each and every one of them have brought us closer to our current understanding of the atom today. Each one of them played a special role in the development process of the atom and most importantly, they all reflected on one another. Many influential scientists follow up on one another proving their own theories correct and in time, create challenges for the next scientist to question. This truly, is one of the main reasons we have gotten so far with the atom. These amazing discoveries mostly started …show more content…
His conclusion of the atom is that it contains a positive nucleus surrounded by negative orbiting electrons. His model also stated that the atom's mass was mostly contained in the nucleus, while the rest was mostly empty space. Rutherford came to this conclusion by his famous gold foil experiment. This experiment involved firing of radioactive particles through thin, gold, metal foils and detecting them using a scintillator (screens covered with zinc sulfide). He then found that the majority of the particles passed right through the foil and only about 1 out of 8000 were deflected (Chemsoc Timeline). This experiment led him to the theory that most of the atom was made up of empty space. Rutherford's model of the nuclear atom proved Thompson's model wrong by stating that an atom consists of an electrically charged nucleus surrounded by alpha particles called electrons. He then went even further and sought out a well thought out explanation proving his scattering of the electrons. This is called Rutherford's Scattering Formula (Microscopic World Part 2). Rutherford assumed that the positive energy concentrated in the nucleus and the alpha particles (electrons) are scattered with a repulsive Coulomb force. Basically, if the incident line is close to the nucleus, the trajectory of the electrons would be widely curved and would scatter. Rutherford's …show more content…
John Dalton is the number one because he paved the ay for further research. He used all the knowledge he had and created the basic fundamentals of the atom. Even though Democritus was the first to question the atom, Dalton was the first to experiment and take matters into his own hands. I believe the second most influential would be Neils Bohr because he used quantum physics to explain Rutherford's model. So in that sense I believe Ernest Rutherford is number three. They both were an extremely important part of the atomic model because they both proved J.J. Thompson's model completely wrong. Rutherford proved that an atom contains a nucleus and protons and electrons, while Bohr proved his model by using quantum physics. Then number four is James Chadwick because he proved that atoms contain neutrons by using his radiation experiments. This was an important discovery in a sense that he proved to Bohr and Rutherford that an atom does not only include protons and electrons. J. J. Thompson is number five in my book because although he was very important, his model was extremely off and he did not have as much evidence to back up his theory. So once again, all five of these famous scientists affected one another creating a powerful chain reaction of experimentation to create the powerful Atomic Theory. I do believe that there is more to come of this. With all of these

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    A new atomic theory, in which all atoms of the same element are identical to one another and equal in mass, was proposed by the scientist Dalton. Although the theory had its flaws and was simple, it was revolutionary. Scientists became able to study the actual structure and mass of atoms after the discovery of radioactivity. Soon, isotopes were discovered, as atoms of the same element which have been built up to have different masses.…

    • 1323 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    post lab bean bag isotopes

    • 1188 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A new atomic theory, in which all atoms of the same element are identical to one another and equal in mass, was proposed by the scientist Dalton. Although the theory had its flaws and was simple, it was revolutionary. Scientists became able to study the actual structure and mass of atoms after the discovery of radioactivity. Soon, isotopes were discovered, as atoms of the same element which have been built up to have different masses.…

    • 1188 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Henry Moseley’s findings allowed for a more accurate placement for elements on the periodic table. He used x-ray spectra to study atomic structures to do this. Because of Mosley's discoveries, the periodic table is ordered by an element's atomic…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although Joseph John (J.J.) Thomson (1856 - 1940) was mainly a physicist, his discoveries are closely connected to the chemical community. Thomson used Crookes high vacuum cathode ray tube in his discovery of electrons. He found the green beam produced by the cathode ray tube was a completely negatively charged material. Experimenting with different electrically charged plates and magnets in the cathode ray tube and observing the deflection of the rays he had enough evidence to say that particles smaller than atoms existed. By doing this experiment multiple times he compiled enough data to conclude that the mass of one of these particles, which he called an electron, was lighter than an atom of hydrogen by around 2,000 times. He also found the ratio of charge to mass (e/m) would be the same for any electron.…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    C. Study of elements led to interest in components of elements and his atomic theory.…

    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    (McPhee, 2010) The scientists of the 19th centuries renewed their interest in the Atomic Theory •John Dalton suggested that all matter was composed of small particles - atoms, each element had a different atom and a different atomic weight, theorized that atoms could not be created or destroyed in chemical reactions (1804) •In his attempt to classify the elements by principles, Dmitri Mendeleev arranged the elements by their atomic weight, discovering the existence of periodicity of the atoms (1869) •J.J. Thomson discovered electrons through his cathode ray experiment and proved that atoms were divisible(1897) (McPhee, 2010), ("A brief history," 2005) 20th century concepts and discoveries •Earnest Rutherford discovered that there was a small, dense positively charged nucleus, predicted the existence of neutrons, stated that electrons move rapidly in the empty space around the nucleus (1909-11) •In continuation of his experiments J.J. Thompson determined that all particles had charges that were multiples of the same number •In 1913 Robert Millikan accurately determined the mass of election…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Six scientists were chosen to see which one had made the greatest contribution to our current understanding of the atom’s structure. Our knowledge of an atom’s appearance and structure have evolved from years and years of development and contribution from many different scientists. Scientist Ernest Rutherford had been the best contributor to the understanding of the atomic structure. Why Rutherford was chosen is because his work had information on protons, neutrons, and electrons, the main components that make up the atom, showed what the atom looks like when the three are put together, and had also been the discoverer of the nucleus which is the one of them most important parts of the atom’s structure.…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rutherford is a Physicist, Scientist. Ernest is also known as the world’s first successful alchemist. Ernest Rutherford was the first scientist to explore into the structure of the atom Unlike many people, Rutherford was not very known for his achievements like the Gold Foil experiment, which helped prove that electrons orbited the nucleus surrounded by empty space.…

    • 730 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Dalton was an English chemist, physicist, and meteorologist. Dalton was born in 1766. He is best known for his work in color blindness, and of course, his Atomic Theory. His theory gave us an idea about what the universe is really made up of, and he paved the way for many more important scientific discoveries after he died in 1844.…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    -Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley- Worked with Ernest Rutherford, experimented with 38 metals, he found that the positive charge of each element’s nucleus increased by one from element to element as they were arranged in Mendeleev’s periodic table, lead to modern definition of atomic number (# of protons in atom’s nucleus) and the recognition the atomic number was basis for organization of periodic table.…

    • 1215 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Both John Dalton and Ernest Rutherford, among other great researchers and scientists, assisted in creating the atomic theory that exists today. Dalton's theory was the first modern atomic theory, but a part of it was disproven by Rutherford. Rutherford found atoms were not indivisible and that they consist of smaller parts and particles. Even though one of Dalton's ideas was proved wrong, his other thoughts still apply to today's atomic…

    • 272 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Dalton Theory

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages

    John Dalton’s effect on the modern atomic theory was essential because he formulated the first modern description of the atom as the fundamental building blocks of chemical structures. Atoms are known as the basic building blocks…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Henry Gwyn Jeffrey’s Moseley: worked with Ernest Rutherford experimented with 38 metals, he found that the positive charge of each element nucleus increased by one from element to element as they were arranged in mendeleevs periodic table, lead to modern definition of atomic number (# of protons in atoms nucleus) and the recognition the atomic number was basis of organization of periodic table.…

    • 2160 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    nucleus

    • 1393 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Based on Thomson’s discovery of the electron, Thomson suggested that atoms were spheres of positively charged matter with negatively charged, electrons embedded in them. Later one of his students ernest Rutherford came up with the idea that atoms should consist of a tiny but massive positive nucleus with electrons circling outside it.2 Ernest Rutherford (1871 – 1937) Rutherford obtained this conclusion through a series of experiments known as the alpha particle scattering experiments. During those years, he worked with his co-workers, Geiger and Marsden in the University of Manchester together, they bombarded thin pieces of gold foil with alpha particles. Most of the Alpha particles passed through but a few were deflected at a sharp angle of over 90o their results revealed the presence of atomic nucleus and led to Rutherfords atomic model.3…

    • 1393 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Even though all of Rutherford's discoveries are exceedingly important, I believe that the most important one is, his discovery of the an atom's nuclear structure The atom now consist of a positive nucleus with negative electrons in circular orbits around it. In addition to this, he discovered that atoms have a dense core (nucleus) where protons and neutrons are located. Along…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics