SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL – PHYSICAL SCIENCE

Chapter 2: The Atom

Chemistry Before Modern History

 People have searched for the ultimate particle that

makes up matter. Since the early civilization, the search
continues.

 In this lesson, We will discover how scientists unravelled

the structure of atom.

 We will discover trace the history on how various ideas

about atoms started, and how and why some were
rejected , resurrected, refined, and modified form the
early Greeks to present.
Early Greek Philosophers

 The earliest ideas about atom started from

the Greek Philosophers who pursued
knowledge through reason and argument
based on speculations.
 Greek Philosophers thought that all things
were made from a single basic substance.
Early Philosophers

THALES OF MILETUS (624 –

547 BCE)
He thought that water was
fundamental substance. Some
thought that it was air, others
speculated it was fire. But
philosophers could not use any of
these substances to explain the
differing properties of all matter.
Early Philosophers

EMPEDOCLES (490-430 BCE)

He proposed the four elemental
substances – earth, air, fire and
water – that can mingle,
separate, and reunite in different
proportions to form different
matter.
Early Philosophers

LEUCIPPUS & DEMOCRITUS

 Most important theorists about natural and
physical world.
 They were called physicists in Ancient
Greece.
 They considered the idea of ATOMISM.

Atomism is the idea that things are made up of

much smaller things that cannot be changed nor
divided.
Atomic Theory (Atomism)

1. Atoms make up most of the things in the

universe.
2. Atoms are incredibly small and cannot be
divided, hence atomos (uncuttable)
3. Atoms are in constant motion in empty
space (void)
4. Atoms differ in size and shape.
5. Atoms themselves are solid, homogeneous
and cannot change.
Early Philosophers

 ARISTOTLE (384-322 BCE)

A famous and influential Greek
philosopher. He argued based
on his assumptions that no
void or vacuum can exist;
therefore, the idea of atoms in
continuous motion was not
accepted.
Early Philosophers

ARISTOTLE (384-322 BCE)

 He adopted and developed Empedocles’ idea
about the existence of elemental substances.

 He associated the four substances with four

qualities – hot, moist, cold, and dry.

 He believed that one substance can be converted

into another by the addition or removal of the
appropriate qualities.
Early Philosophers

 Because of the influence of Aristotle, the idea

of Leucippus and Democritus were ignored
for nearly 2000 years.
 Lucretius (99-55 BCE), a Latin poet and
philosopher, wrote about the concept of
Atomism in his poem “De rerum natura’
which helped the atomic theory survive.
The Advent of Alchemy: Chemistry in the
Middle Ages.

 The first attempt to understand chemistry

through experimentation began as
ALCHEMY
 Alchemy is the earliest form of chemistry. The
term is derived from the French word,
arquemie, which refers to the mixing of juices
and saps obtained from plants.
Alchemy

 It is associated with turning base metals into

gold and creating an elixir of life.
 Influenced by Aristotle’s idea of converting
one substance into another by the addition or
removal of appropriate qualities.
 The alchemist attempted to transmute cheap
metals into gold by treating a base metal
with a substance they called “philosophers
stone”
Alchemy

 They also believed that the process may

produce an elixir of life.
 In western Europe, the alchemists were
focused on producing gold.
 In China, however, alchemy was mainly
aimed to finding elixir of life; little effort was
devoted to transmuting metals to gold.
Alchemical Contributions

 Paracelsus (1493-1541) introduced the use of

metals and minerals to cure illnesses.
 Alchemist contributed to the development of
chemistry.
 They studied and found many properties of
matter that are known as chemical
properties.
Alchemical Contributions

 They invented apparatuses like:

1. Reaction Vessels
Alembic (a distillation apparatus)
Alchemical Contributions

2. Bain Marie (a water 3. Kerotakis (a tabular

bath named after metal container)
Mary the Jewes)
Seventeenth to Mid-Nineteenth
Century
 It is the beginning of scientific revolution;
that is the rise of experimental science. Up
until the mid-19th century, many scientific
studies were aimed at understanding the
nature of elements and compounds and their
interaction.
The Rise of Experimentation

 Sir Francis Bacon (1561-

1626)
 Father of empiricism
 Popularized inductive
methodologies in the
conduct of a scientific
inquiry.
The Rise of Experimentation

 Robert Boyle (1627-1691)

 Quantitavely studied the
compression and
expansion of air, which led
to the idea that air was
composed of particles he
called corpuscles that are
in constant motion.
The Rise of Experimentati0n

 Anton-Laurent Lavoiser
(1743-1794) performed a
quantitative experiment that
led to an operational
definition of element that
was written in his book,
“Element of Chemistry”
Contribution of John Dalton

 He used the idea of the

indivisible atom to explain the
laws of chemical combination.
 Dalton pictured the atom as
tiny, indestructible sphere
with mass.
 He is known as one of the
Fathers of Modern Physical
Science.
Postulates of Dalton’s Atomic
Theory
1. Matter is made up of extremely small,
indestructible atoms.
2. Atoms of the same elements are identical in
their physical and chemical properties.
3. Atoms of different elements have different
chemical properties.
4. Atoms of different element combine in
simple whole number ratios to form
chemical compound.
Postulates of Dalton’s Atomic Theory

5. In chemical reactions, atom cannot be

subdivided, created, or destroyed. They are
only combined, separated, or rearranged.

Dalton’s Atomic Theory sufficiently explains the

three laws of chemical combination.
Law of Conservation of Mass

 It states that when an ordinary chemical

reaction occurs, there is no detectable
change, in the masses of the substances
involved before and after the reaction.
Law of Definite Proportion

 It states that a given compound always

contains the same elements in the same
percentage by mass.

 When two elements combine to form a given

compound, they always do so in fixed
proportion.
Law of Multiple Proportions

 Itstates that when two elements form more

than one compound by combining in more
than one proportion by weight, the weight of
one element in one of the compound is in
simple, integer ratios to its weights in the
other compound.
Mid-Nineteenth Century to Present

 Thomson’s Plum Pudding Model

 Joseph John Thompson published the idea that
electricity was in particles that were part of the
atom.
 Experimenting with cathode rays, he established
the mass and charge properties of these particles.
 These particles were named electrons.
 He came up with the plum-pudding model, which
was an idea of what the atom looked like based on
his experiment.
Mid-Nineteenth Century to Present

 Thomson’s Plum Pudding Model

 He would later conclude that the electron was not
the only source of mass in the atom. This implied
that the atom was composed of others particles.
Mid-Nineteenth Century to Present

 Thomson’s Plum Pudding Model

 A sphere with a uniformly distributed positive
charge and enough embedded electrons to
neutralize the positive charge. A plum pudding is a
sort of cake with raisins embedded in it.
Mid-Nineteenth Century to Present

 Rutherford’s Nuclear Model

 Earnest Rutherford, a student of Thomson’s,
who was among studied radioactivity.
 He concluded that radioactivity occurred due
to changes on a subatomic level or changes
within the atom itself.
 He distinguish two kinds of radiation based
on their penetrating power: alpha and beta.
Mid-Nineteenth Century to Present

 Rutherford’s Nuclear Model

 He studied these types of radiation and
noticed, from his experiments, that alpha
particles would sometimes bounce off at a
high angle when made to penetrate a very
thin gold foil.
Mid-Nineteenth Century to Present

 Rutherford’s Nuclear Model

 He theorized that the model
proposed by Thomson did not
explain the deflection of alpha
particles.
 He devised his own model
with a positive nucleus at the
center and electrons revolving
like planets at a distance
around it.
Mid-Nineteenth Century to Present
 Rutherford’s Nuclear Model
 Rutherford concluded that the
nucleus was composed of
positive particles known as
protons.
 He suggested the possibility of
finding a composite particle.
(proton + electron) with a
negligible electric field that
composed the nucleus.
Neutrons, Atomic Number, and Mass
Number.
Neutrons, Atomic Number, and Mass
Number.

Atomic Number = no. of protons = no. of electrons

Mass number = no. of protons + no. of neutron

Neutron = Mass number - protons

Activity 1
ELEMENT MASS ATOMIC NO. OF NO.
NUMBER NUMBER PROTONS NEUTRONS

1. 13 7

2. 11 12

3. 35 17

4. 3 2

5. 1 0
Activity 2
ELEMENT MASS ATOMIC NO. OF NO.
NUMBER NUMBER PROTONS NEUTRONS

1. 6 6

2. 20 10

3. 14 6

4. 10 12

5. 20 20
Mid-Nineteenth Century to
Present
 Bohr’s Planetary Model
 He tackled one of the big
issues with Rutherford
model in 1973.
 The system proposed by
Rutherford was unstable
because, the spinning
electrons would tent to be
attracted to the positive
nucleus and lose energy until
they collapsed into the center.
Mid-Nineteenth Century to
Present
 Bohr’s Planetary Model
 It is a planetary model in
which the negatively-
charged electrons orbit a
small, positively-charged
nucleus similar to the
planets orbiting the Sun.
Mid-Nineteenth Century to
Present
 Schrodinger’s Electron
Cloud Model
 He developed a power
atomic model based on the
assumption that the
electron is wave.
 This function of an electron
is called atomic orbital, a
region in 3D space where an
electron has the highest
possibility to be located.
Mid-Nineteenth Century to
Present
 James Chadwick Atomic Model
 In1932, Chadwick bombarded
beryllium atoms with alpha
particles. An unknown radiation
was produced.

 Chadwick interpreted this

radiation as being composed of
particles with a neutral electrical
charge and the approximate
mass of a proton. This particle
became known as the neutron.
GROUP ACTIVITY

 Make a creative representation of the

historical development of atom.