Milestones of the Atom
If I were to ask you, are there any similarities between a grain of sand and a blue whale, what will you answer? You cannot answer color nor texture nor parts nor size. Do you have an answer yet? My answer is that both has atoms.
An atom is the smallest particle that is present in every matter. Since sand is solid and blue whale, obviously, is also solid, both have atoms. But what is really the form of atom? Is it a cube, a sphere, a prism or no definite shape at all? Through the course of history, scientists have been studying carefully the characteristics of an atom.
It was Leucippus and Democritus that first proposed that every matter is made up tiny, indivisible particles which they called "atomos". After them, John Dalton made the atomic theory which he derived from Leucippus and Democritus' proposal. After him, J. J. Thompson discovered that a tiny atom is even made up much smaller subatomic particles. He named one of them electrons, the negatively charged particle inside the atom. His model is most popularly known as the "plum-pudding model". After Thompson, Ernest Rutherford conducted the alpha scattering experiment. In his experiment, he observed that when alpha particles hit a thin gold foil, majority of the particles passed through the foil. Some of these particles had made an angle of deflection while a few have been deflected. Through his experiment, he concluded that every atom has a nucleus in its center that when alpha particles hit these nucleus, it will bounce back. Some of the particles that did not bounce back slightly hit the side of the nucleus or did not hit it at all. Rutherford's model is also called the nuclear model.
After the discovery of the nucleus, a Danish Physicist, Neils Bohr, came up with another model of the atom. He said that an atom is made up of the nucleus and sorrounding this nucleus are circular orbits. Each orbit contains electrons. Even after Bohr, several more scientists study the characteristics of the atom.
Of all the conributions and models of the atom, I think Bohr's model fits the characteristics of the atom. It explains the experiment made by Ernest Rutherford and it shows the subatomic particle electron. It even explained a great number of facts in his time. On the other hand, I also think that man has not yet found the real face of the atom. I think man has still a long way to fully understand a tiny particle that is present in every matter.
Of all the conributions and models of the atom, I think Bohr's model fits the characteristics of the atom. It explains the experiment made by Ernest Rutherford and it shows the subatomic particle electron. It even explained a great number of facts in his time. On the other hand, I also think that man has not yet found the real face of the atom. I think man has still a long way to fully understand a tiny particle that is present in every matter.
