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400 BCE
Democritus
He lived in Greece. He contributed to the understanding of atoms when he came up with the idea of atoms, or as he called it atomos. He found this information by cutting an object many times until it couldn't be cut anymore. Interesting fact: he is considered the "father of modern science." Source: http://democrituspd8.weebly.com/interesting-facts.html -
John Dalton
He lived in the 1700s - 1800s. He lived in England. He contributed to the understanding of atoms with the information that all elements are made out of atoms, atoms of the same element are identical and atoms of different elements are different, and atoms can't be destroyed, made, or sub divided. He also came up with the first model of an atom. Interesting fact: he discovered color blindness. Source: https://the-history-of-the-atom.wikispaces.com/John+Dalton -
J.J Thomson
He lived in the 1800s. He lived in England. He contributed to the understanding of atoms by discovering negatively charged electrons, he also came up with the plum pudding model of the atom. He found this information by using a cathode ray tube in his experiments. Interesting fact: he was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in Physics in 1906. Source: https://the-history-of-the-atom.wikispaces.com/J.J.+Thomson -
Ernest Rutherford
He lived in the !800s-1900s. He lived in New Zealand. They contributed to the understanding of atoms by discovering positively charged protons, the center of the atom: the nucleus, and that atoms are made mostly of empty space. He found this information by creating an experiment where he shot a beam of particles at a thin piece of gold foil. Interesting fact: In 1914, he was knighted. Source: https://the-history-of-the-atom.wikispaces.com/Ernst+Rutherford -
Niels Bohr
He lived in the 1800s-1900s. He lived in Denmark. He contributed to the understanding of atoms by discovering that atoms have energy levels outside of the nucleus where the electrons are. He found this information by bashing his research of JJ Thomson's. Interesting fact: In 1922, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in physics. Source: https://the-history-of-the-atom.wikispaces.com/Niels+Bohr https://learnodo-newtonic.com/niels-bohr-facts -
Modern Atomic Model: Erwin Schrodinger And Werner Heisenberg
Lived in 1800s-1900s. Werner lived in Germany and Erwin lived in Austria. Werner contributed by stating that electrons do not travel in neat orbits and that all electrons with photons will change momentum and physics. Erwin contributed with Werner by mathematically finding where an electron would be when it traveled. They found this information with many calculations and they based their research off of Louis de Broglie. -
Modern Atomic Model: Erwin Schrodinger And Werner Heisenberg
Interesting Fact: 1932, werner was given the Noble peace in physics and in 1933 Erwin was awarded it too. Source: https://the-history-of-the-atom.wikispaces.com/Werner+Heisenberg https://www.msnucleus.org/membership/html/jh/physical/atomictheory/lesson1/atomic1g.html https://www.msnucleus.org/membership/html/jh/physical/atomictheory/lesson1/atomic1g.html