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Development of The Atom1

The document discusses the early history and development of ideas about atoms from ancient Greek philosophers like Democritus who first proposed the idea of atoms, through alchemists in the middle ages, to Robert Boyle in the 17th century who helped define modern concepts of elements and chemistry.

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28 views

Development of The Atom1

The document discusses the early history and development of ideas about atoms from ancient Greek philosophers like Democritus who first proposed the idea of atoms, through alchemists in the middle ages, to Robert Boyle in the 17th century who helped define modern concepts of elements and chemistry.

Uploaded by

reinareguevarra
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Development of the Atom

Development of the Atom


World of Chemistry
The Annenberg Film Series

VIDEO ON DEMAND

Episode 6 – Atom
Moving through history, this program progresses from the ancient to the modern view of the atom and
its applications in new technology. Viewers will journey inside the atom to appreciate its architectural
beauty and grasp how atomic structure determines chemical behavior.
The Hellenic Market

Fire
~
Water Earth Air
A Brief History of Chemistry

• In fourth century B.C., ancient Greeks proposed


that matter consisted of fundamental particles
called atoms.

• Over the next two millennia, major advances in


chemistry were achieved by alchemists. Their
major goal was to convert certain elements into
others by a process called transmutation.

Copyright © 2007 Pearson Benjamin Cummings. All rights reserved.


The Greeks
History of the Atom

• Not the history of atom, but


the idea of the atom
• In 400 B.C the Greeks tried to
understand matter
(chemicals) and broke them
down into earth, wind, fire,
and air.


• Democritus and Leucippus
Greek philosophers
Greek Model
“To understand the very large,
we must understand the very small.”
Democritus
• Greek philosopher
• Idea of ‘democracy’
• Idea of ‘atomos’
– Atomos = ‘indivisible’
– ‘Atom’ is derived
• No experiments to support Democritus’s model of atom
idea
No protons, electrons, or neutrons
• Continuous vs. discontinuous
theory of matter Solid and INDESTRUCTABLE
Democritus
DEMOCRITUS (400 BC) – First Atomic Hypothesis
Atomos: Greek for “uncuttable”. Chop up a piece of matter until you reach the atomos.

Properties of atoms:
• indestructible.
• changeable, however, into different forms.
• an infinite number of kinds so there are an infinite number of elements.
• hard substances have rough, prickly atoms that stick together.
• liquids have round, smooth atoms that slide over one another.
• smell is caused by atoms interacting with the nose – rough atoms hurt.
• sleep is caused by atoms escaping the brain.
• death – too many escaped or didn’t return.
• the heart is the center of anger.
• the brain is the center of thought.
• the liver is the seat of desire.

“Nothing exists but atoms and space, all else is opinion”.


Four Element Theory

• Plato was an atomist FIRE

• Thought all matter was


Hot Dry
composed of 4 elements:
– Earth (cool, heavy)
AIR ‘MATTER’ EARTH
– Water (wet)
– Fire (hot)
Wet
– Air (light) Cold
– Ether (close to heaven)
WATER

Relation of the four elements and the four qualities

Blend these “elements” in different proportions to get all substances


Some Early Ideas on Matter

Anaxagoras (Greek, born 500 B.C.)


–Suggested every substance had its own kind of “ seeds”
seeds that clustered together to
make the substance, much as our atoms cluster to make molecules.

Empedocles (Greek, born in Sicily, 490 B.C.)


–Suggested there were only four basic seeds – earth, air, fire, and water.
water The
elementary substances (atoms to us) combined in various ways to make
everything.

Democritus (Thracian, born 470 B.C.)


–Actually proposed the word atom (indivisible) because he believed that all
matter consisted of such tiny units with voids between, an idea quite similar to
our own beliefs. It was rejected by Aristotle and thus lost for 2000 years.

Aristotle (Greek, born 384 B.C.)


–Added the idea of “qualities” – heat, cold, dryness, moisture – as basic elements
which combined as shown in the diagram (previous page).
Hot + dry made fire; hot + wet made air, and so on.

O’Connor Davis, MacNab, McClellan, CHEMISTRY Experiments and Principles 1982, page 26,
Who Was Right?
• Greek society was slave based
• Beneath famous to work with hands
• did not experiment
• Greeks settled disagreements by argument
• Aristotle was more famous
• He won!
• His ideas carried through middle ages.
• Alchemists change lead to gold
Alchemy

• After that chemistry was


ruled by alchemy.
• They believed that that
could take any cheap
metals and turn them into
gold.
• Alchemists were almost
like magicians.
– elixirs, physical immortality
Alchemy
Alchemical symbols for
substances…
...
.......
.....
GOLD SILVER COPPER IRON SAND

transmutation: changing one substance into


another

In ordinary chemistry, we cannot transmute elements.


Contributions
of alchemists:
Information about elements
- the elements mercury, sulfur, and antimony were discovered
- properties of some elements

Develop lab apparatus / procedures / experimental techniques


- alchemists learned how to prepare acids.
- developed several alloys
- new glassware
Early Ideas on Elements
Robert Boyle stated...
– A substance was an
element unless it could
be broken down to two or
more simpler
substances.

– Air therefore could not be


an element because it
could be broken down in
to many pure
substances.
Robert Boyle
Modern Chemistry

• Beginnings of modern chemistry were seen in the


sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, where great
advances were made in metallurgy, the extraction of
metals from ores.

• In the seventeenth century, Boyle described the


relationship between the pressure and volume of air and
defined an element as a substance that cannot be
broken down into two or more simpler substances by
chemical means.

Copyright © 2007 Pearson Benjamin Cummings. All rights reserved.

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