The History of Atomic Theory Timeline
Ever wondered how we figured out what atoms actually look like? The journey spans over 2,000 years and involves some brilliant scientific detective work that completely changed our understanding of matter.
Democritus (500 BC) was the first to imagine atoms as tiny, solid spheres separated by empty space. Pretty impressive for someone without any scientific equipment! Much later, John Dalton (1803) expanded this idea, suggesting that different elements were made of different types of solid spheres - this became known as Dalton's Model.
The real breakthrough came with J.J. Thompson in 1897, who discovered electrons and proposed the Plum Pudding Model. He imagined atoms as positively charged spheres with negatively charged electrons scattered randomly throughout, like plums in a pudding.
Ernest Rutherford (1911) completely revolutionised atomic theory with his famous gold foil experiment. He fired alpha particles at thin gold foil and discovered that most passed straight through, but some bounced back dramatically. This proved atoms were mostly empty space with a tiny, dense, positive centre - the nuclear model was born.
Key Point: Each scientist built on previous work, showing how scientific understanding develops over time through experimentation and evidence.
The timeline concludes with Niels Bohr (1913) solving a major problem with Rutherford's model by proposing that electrons orbit the nucleus in specific energy levels, and James Chadwick (1932) discovering the neutron. The order of subatomic particle discovery was: electron โ proton โ neutron.