Before the age of modern technology, theories of the atom were still created. Most notably was Democritus who was thought of as being the start of modern science when he first came up with the idea of the atom. It was not until J.J. Thomson changed the way atoms were understood with the discovery of the electron. It was not soon after when Ernst Rutherford disproved Thomson’s model with his gold foil experiment. Finally, Niels Bohr built off Rutherford’s gold foil experiment to explain the placement of electrons in an atom. These men and many more all helped pave the way to the modern theory of the atom.
Democritus was an ancient philosopher in Greece. Democritus believed that atoms were indivisible and indestructible. …show more content…
Niels Bohr studied under Ernest Rutherford. Niels Bohr used a combination of Rutherford’s description of the nucleus and the current theory of quanta to help create his model4. With the information at hand, Niels Bohr created his model. First, Bohr stated that electrons traveled in different orbits around the small positively charged nucleus. This is not the most compelling part of the model. Bohr’s model, however, explains the properties of the elements based on the outer most numbers of electrons. This is called the valance shell. Bohr’s model is basically giving levels for each electron. However, the last shell just needs to be filled to achieve a full valance. This can be explained by using the periodic table of elements. The noble gases are inert because they have a full valance shell. Once an atom is full it will stop its reactionary traits. This model is still used to today to explain the atom in a simplistic way. Conversely, this theory has been disproven. The issue with Niels Bohr’s model is that the electrons still orbit the nucleus like planets do to the sun. This issue basically discards Bohr’s theory to be the most accurate representation of the …show more content…
As technology progressed so did the curiosity of the human on the theory of what made the universe. J.J. Thomson then changed the way in which atoms were understood when he discovered the electron and indirectly discovered the proton. Which led to the plum pudding model. However, this model would come under fire. Not soon after, his pupil Ernst Rutherford would disprove his model by discovering the positively charged nucleus with his gold foil experiment. The discovery of the nucleus disproved the plum pudding model and gave way to the nuclear model. Then, Niels Bohr, student of Ernst Rutherford, would then help explain the characteristics of elements and atoms by the discovery of valance electrons and the levels of charge. Even though Bohr does not have the right model, it is still used today to help teach the valance electrons. The correct representation of the atom, the cloud model, is an extreme explanation to the question of what makes up the