Lynch.McNelis.MMA.2010.atomichistory

= Atomic Timeline =


 * Leucippus [[image:imagesCAGTY9F4.jpg]] **
 * Leucippus was said to be born in Elea, Abdera or Miletus around in the fifth century B.C. Reports say that he was a student of Parmenides’ follower Zeno. Not much is known of Leucippus and there are no written documents of his work. He was a teacher to Democritus, and was the founder of atomism in physics. **
 * Leucippus had a theory that the universe consisted of two different elements which he called “full” and “solid”, and “Empty” and “void”. He said that both within solid and void atoms are thought to be infinite, and between them to constitute the elements of everything. He declared that without none being, there would be no motion, but then he concluded that the state of non being could not exist. Not much documentation is remaining personally from him, but the closest thing is his student Democritus. **


 * Democritus [[image:imagesCAWGZGU0.jpg]][[image:imagesCAM0IXK0.jpg]] **
 * Democritus was born in Adbera, Greece in 460 B.C. At the time Adbera was the leading Greek city on the northern coast of the Aegean Sea. Some say he lived life based almost entirely on tradition of an untrustworthy kind. He studied Mathematical and Scientific systems for seven years in Egypt. He was pronounced and still named the greatest of the Greek Physical Philosophers. **
 * In the Fifth Century B.C. Democritus proposed that all matter is constructed by tiny indestructible particles called atoms. He asked this question, “If you break a piece of matter in half, and then break it in half again, how many breaks will you have to make before you can break it no further?” He described that the smallest piece that you cannot cut any smaller is an atom. He stated that the characteristics of an object are determined by the shape of an atom, like sweet things are made from smooth atoms. **

** Epicurus **
 * Epicurus was born in 342 B.C. in Samos of Greece then moved and spent most of his life in Athens where he went to school of Philosophy. Epicurus and his friend spent time at “the Garden” where they lived out there ideals for human life and talking about philosophical issues, but they stayed away from the activity in the social crowd. He took ideas and furthered the discovery of the atomic theory of Democritus and Leucippus. **
 * Epicurus believed that basic components of the world are atoms moving in the void. He states that there are bodies in motion, and nothing comes into existence from nothing. All similar to what Democritus have studied, but he differs in weight, the swerve, and the sensible qualities. Epicurus believed that atoms have a downward motion because of the atomic weight. During an atoms motion, Epicurus believed that atoms have a tend to swerve to explain atomic collisions. Epicurus also explained that single atoms don’t have sensible qualities like being white or sweet or rough, but single atoms are simple atoms. **
 * Andreas Sigismund [[image:andre.jpg]] **
 * Andreas Sigismund was born on March 3rd 1709 and lived until August 7th 1782. She was of German ethnicity and was a chemist and a founder of analytical chemistry. He was able to get zinc by itself and was credited for it because he wrote down how he did it by heating calamine and carbon. Although he was not the first to figure out this was possible, he is credited because he was the one to tell it to the public in an understandable manner. **
 * He contributed much to the atomic model by isolating zinc. He also discovered a sugar that is found in beets and was able to get it down to its purest form. One of his student’s later developed a way to mass produce this sugar by finding a way to extract it in large quantities. **


 * Antoine Lavoisier[[image:anton.jpg]] **




 * Know as the father of modern-day chemistry, Antoine Lavoisier was a Frenchman that thrived even more than usual in the subjects of chemistry and biology. HE was born August 26th 1773 and died on May 8th 1794. This man had the first idea of the conservation of mass theory. He is responsible for the recognitions and naming of hydrogen and oxygen. **
 * To fund his science research, he invested money in a tax collection company, and was on a bunch or aristocrat boards. His hard work paid off, as he is known as one of the best scientist that ever lived. **
 * He contributed much to chemistry and biology and he is credited for helping in the formation of the atomic model stating that matter can change shape or form but always remains the same mass. **

** John Dalton (1766-1844) **
 * John Dalton was born in a Quaker family in Cumberland, England on September 6, 1766. John has gotten early education from his father and started teaching early at the Quakers school at Eaglesfield in 1778. He was not successful at the time, so he took up farming after two years of teaching. Then in 1781 John left his hometown to become his cousin’s assistant George Bewley who kept a school in Kendal. The next 12 years went by and John became joint manager of the school in his cousin’s retirement. In 1793 John moved to Manchester where he lived the rest of his life. **
 * John Dalton is still called the founder of modern Chemistry because of his atomic theory. His theory states that elements are made up of small particles called atoms, all atoms for a particular element are identical, atoms of different elements can be told apart by the atomic weight, atoms of different elements can combine in a chemical reaction to form chemical compounds in fixed ratios, and that atoms cannot be created, destroyed or divided as they are the smallest particles of matter. He stated this theory in a lecture at the Royal Institution in 1803. Until now, only the theory of an atom not being able to break down was proven wrong during the invention of the nuclear bomb. **
 * Michael Faraday (1791-1867) ** [[image:Faraday.jpg]][[image:mikal.jpg]]
 * Michael Faraday was born in a poor family in London in 1791. He was always curious and questionable type of kid growing up, that at 13 he worked for a bookshop reading all the books he laid hands on. He was interested in the concept of energy, and was able to make important discoveries in electricity later in life. One of his major discoveries was electromagnetic induction, and he also created the electric motor, generator, and transformer. **
 * Since Michael did a lot of experiments with electricity, he experimented with a pair of metal plates sealed in a gas tube with the plates connected to a series of batteries. He then filled the tube with gas, and the gas pressure decreased and began to glow. His conclusion was that the effect of the magnetic field was what produced the glow that was electrically charged. He was able to split the molecules using electricity, and then brought the laws of electrolysis. **
 * Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen [[image:Wilhelm.jpg]][[image:rohntgen.jpg]] **
 * Wilhelm was born in Germany on March 27th 1845. He was an only child. He was never known for his outstanding aptitude but he always had a hunch for roaming around the open forest and making mechanical contraptions. This was a trait that stayed with him most of his life. He entered a tech school which he was expelled after being accused of drawing a picture of a teacher. He then enrolled into the actual university the where he went to tech school and began to study physics. **
 * After a few years of studying, he did research on light crystals and the thermodynamics of them. This then led to his discovery of x rays at which was a huge contribution to the atomic model. **


 * Henri Becquerel[[image:beq.jpg]][[image:Henri.jpg]] **
 * Henri was born in Paris on December 15, 1852. He was raised from a family of notorious scholars and mathematicians. Coming from this family, he had many resources available to him that encouraged his scientific breakthroughs. While experimenting on his own at home, Henri attended Polytechnic in 1872get his degree in Doctors of Science. And later took over as the Chair of Applied Physics at Conservatoire des Arts etMétiers. **
 * Henri made huge contributions to the Atomic theory with his studies and works on radioactivity. He worked with the absorption of light by crystals and helped shape the atomic theory, as we know it today, before he died on the 25 of August 1908. **


 * J.J. Thompson (1856-1940)[[image:imagesCAFE3MNF.jpg]][[image:imagesCAXI2R2Y.jpg]] **
 * J.J. Thompson was born in a suburb of Manchester called Cheetham Hill on December 18, 1856. In 1870 he went to Owens College in Manchester, then 6 years later he enrolled in Trinity College of Cambridge as a minor scholar. In 1880 he became a Fellow of Trinity College when he was Second Wrangler and Second Smith’s Prizeman. He later became Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge and succeeded Lord Rayleigh from 1884 to 1918. **
 * In his experiment he subjected cathode rays to magnetic and electric fields and the beam has been deflected because of the negative charged particles. He then calculated as having a large value for charge to mass ratio. He came to conclusion a model of an atom as a sphere of positive matter with negatively charged electrons are positioned around the atom. **


 * Marie Curie[[image:marie.jpg]] **
 * Born in Warsaw on November 7, 1867, Marie Curie was schooled at the local schools in Warsaw and also by her father, a secondary school Math and Science teacher. Perusing a license in physics and mathematics, Maria went to Paris to continue her education. In Paris, she met her future husband Pierre an physics professor. Marie worked as a professor also and eventually worked her way up succeeding her husband. **
 * For her contributions to the atomic theory and specifically the study of spontaneous radiation, Marie was a co winner with Becquerel for the Nobel Prize. She later won a second Nobel Prize for Chemistry and the Study of Radioactivity. Marie also won the Davy Medal of the Royal Society in 1905 and 1921. Her life sadly came to an end on July 4, 1934 in Savoy France after she suffered from a short illness. **
 * Earnest Rutherford[[image:rutherford.jpg]][[image:ernest.jpg]] **
 * Born August 30th, 1871, Earnest was a chemist and physicist from British New Zealand descent. He was later known as the father of nuclear physics. He was awarded the NobelPrize for his discoveries and contributions to the science of elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances. **
 * He is very important to the succession of science and the discoveries he made changed the way science is studied and understood. He also created the half-life concept of radioactive material. **

** Robert Millikan (1868-1953) ** ** Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) **
 * Neils Bohr (1885-1962)[[image:neils.jpg]][[image:bohr.jpg]] **
 * Neils Bohr was born in Copenhagen on October 7, 1885. He was the son of a Professor in Physiology at Copenhagen University, making the atmosphere for him growing up most favorable to become a genius. He went to Copenhagen University in 1903, then after graduation went to Manchester to study under Ernest Rutherford. **
 * In 1913, Bohr made a theory about the structure of an atom based on Rutherford’s theory. Rutherford said that an atom consisted of a positively charged nucleus and with negatively charged electrons surrounding it. Bohr suggested that electrons travel only in certain but larger orbits. Also the outer orbits consist of more electrons than the orbits closer to the nucleus. Another major discovery of his is he describes the way atoms emit radiation when an electron jumps from one orbit to another, which emits light. **
 * Robert Millikan was born on March 22 1868 in Morrison Illinois. He spent a short amount of time working as a court reporter until he entered Oberlin College in Ohio in 1886. In 1893 he went to Columbia University for Physics, and then received his Ph.D. in 1895 for researching the polarization of light emitted by incandescent surfaces. He received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1923 and also made Commander of the Legion of Honour. Millikan liked playing tennis and golf, and was married in 1902 with three sons. He died on December 19, 1953. **
 * Robert made an experiment called the “Oil-drop Experiment” where he measured the charge on an electron. An atomizer would spray oil droplets into an area between two plates, one positive and one negative. In the middle of the chambers, x-rays were being shot. Particles that were not captured by any electrons fell to the bottom due to gravity, but particles that did capture electrons were attracted to the positive plate and floated upward or fell more slowly. He proved J.J. Thomson’s theory that an electron is 1000 times smaller than the atom. **


 * Werner was born on December 5, 1901 in Wurzburg. He was the son of a doctor and Professor of Greek languages at the University of Munich. In 1920 Werner enrolled at the University of Munich to study physics. In 1923 he got his Ph.D. and then became an assistant of Max Born at University of Gottingen. He also worked with Niels Bohr at the University of Copenhagen. He liked classical music, and also played the piano. He was married in 1937 and had 7 children in Munich. Werner died on February 1, 1976. **
 * Heisenberg joined Bohr in 1926 at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen. They worked on the atomic structure and were confused about the properties of electrons. He tried the electrons properties by shooting gamma rays and seeing where the position was, but then it changed the position. He developed the uncertainty principle where you could never physically see where an electron is, and became accepted as a fundamental law of nature. **

** Schrodinger made this equation called the Schrodinger equation in 1926 that predicts the properties and reactivites of all atoms and molecules. The equation was too difficult to solve, but the conclusions he made were that energies are quantized in atoms and molecules, and that orbital’s which are associated with each energy determines where the electrons are located. **
 * Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961) [[image:schrodinger.jpg]][[image:erwin.jpg]] **
 * Erwin Schrodinger was born on August 12, 1887 in Vienna as an only child. He took an interest in wide varieties from scientific disciplines, ancient grammar, and German poetry. From 1906 to 1910 he was a student at the University of Vienna for Physics. He took assistant professor jobs, and regular professor jobs. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933. After he retired he returned to Vienna, and then died on January 4, 1961. **


 * James Chadwick (1891-1974)[[image:James.jpg]][[image:chadwick.jpg]] **
 * James Chadwick was born October 20, 1891 in Cheshire, England. He attended Manchester University in 1908 and graduated from the Honours School of Physics in 1911, then was mentored under Professor Rutherford. During WWI, he was interned in the Zivilgefangenenlager, Ruhleben, then after the war in 1919 he returned to England. He then went to school in Cambridge and still under the work of Rutherford. In 1945, Chadwick was knighted. He was married and had twin daughters in North whales, and his hobbies were gardening and fishing. He died on July 24, 1974. **
 * In 1932, Chadwick took a sample of Beryllium that was bombarded with alpha particles that causes it to emit some mysterious radiation. He discovered this radiation would discharge some of the protons. He couldn’t tell that the radiation was neutral because it wasn’t affected by proximity to a magnetic field, and did not discharge electrons and rather protons. This meant that the particles had to be bigger than previously predicted, and so Chadwick discovered the neutron. For his work he won the Nobel Prize in 1935.

**

