Dalton, John (1766- 1844)

Throughout his life Dalton was interested in the Earth's atmosphere, and he
recorded more than 200,000 atmospheric observations in his notebooks.
These observations led Dalton to study gases, and from the results of his
experiments he was able to formulate his atomic theory. In a book on
meteorology, he concluded that the aurora borealis is a magnetic
phenomenon; he also explained the condensation of dew and gave a table of
vapor pressures of water at various temperatures. Dalton was the first to
publish the generalization that all gases initially at the same temperature
expand equally on going to the same higher temperature. His law of partial
pressures was included in a paper (1803) on gas solubilities.He proposed the
Atomic Theory in 1803 which stated that (1) all matter was composed of
small indivisible particles termed atoms, (2) atoms of a given element
possess unique characteristics and weight, and (3) three types of atoms
exist: simple (elements), compound (simple molecules), and complex
(complex molecules). Dalton's theory was presented in New System of
Chemical Philosophy (1808-1827). This work identified chemical elements as
a specific type of atom, therefore rejecting Newton's theory of chemical
affinities.
Dalton's atomic theory was expressed in public lectures in 1803, and later in
his New System of Chemical Philosophy (1808). Many scientists, including
William Higgins, had considered matter to be made of atoms, but Dalton
provided a model from which definite predictions could be made. This theory
incorporated additional features that have since been discarded, but the
realization that each atom has a characteristic mass and that atoms of
elements are unchanged in chemical processes has served chemists to the
present day.
Bohr, Niels (1885- 1962)
Danish physicist who proposed a successful quantum model of the atom in
1913. His model assumed that (1) the electron exists at precise distances
from the nucleus, (2) as long as an electron remains in one location, no
energy is given off, (3) electrons have circular orbits (this is only correct for s
orbitals), and (4) the angular momenta associated with allowed electron

motion are integral multiples of . Bohr stated the Correspondence Principle,

which states that quantum mechanical formulas must reduce to the classical
results in the limit of large quantum number. He also advocated a
probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics known as the Copenhagen
interpretation.
Rutherford, Sir Ernest (1885-1962)
In 1907, Rutherford taught at the University of Manchester and began
studying radiation with Hans Geiger. At the University of Manchester, he
made many discoveries, including alpha, beta, and gamma rays, the proton,
the neutron, half-life of radioactive decay and daughter atoms. He also
developed a model of the atom.
Rutherford made his greatest discovery in 1909. Shortly after his move to
Manchester, he found that a few alpha particles, when bombarding thin
metal foils, were deflected from their incident beam through more than 90
deg. "It was almost as incredible," Rutherford later responded in a now-
classic statement, "as if you fired a fifteen-inch shell at a piece of tissue
paper and it came back and hit you." Early in 1911 he finally announced his
version of the structure of the atom: a very small, tightly packed, charged
nucleus sprinkled with opposite charges in the mostly empty surrounding
void. The deflected alpha particles were those that had come into close
proximity with the nucleus and had rebounded in various oblique directions.
In later years, Rutherford produced the disintegration of a non-radioactive
atom and extracted a single particle with a positive charge, which he called a
"proton." This experiment made him the first human to create a nuclear
reaction. During a lecture on June 3, 1920, Rutherford speculated on the
possible existence and properties of the neutron, which marks the beginning
of the development of atomic weapons. In 1908, Rutherford received the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry .He is considered the "father of nuclear physics."
Thomson, Sir Joseph John (1856-1940)
English physicist who discovered the electron using a cathode ray tube in
1897. He calculated its mass to charge ratio and proposed the plum pudding
model of the atom (or Raisin- Pudding theory). Thomson demonstrated that
cathode rays were actually units of electrical current made up of negatively
charged particles of subatomic size. He believed them to be an integral part
of all matter and theorized a model of atomic structure in which a quantity of
negatively charged electrons was embedded in a sphere of positive
electricity, the two charges neutralizing each other.
Subsequently, Thomson turned his attention to positively charged ions. His
research showed that neon gas was made up of a combination of two
different types of ions, each with a different charge, or mass, or both. He did
this by using magnetic and electric fields to deflect the stream of positive
ions of neon gas onto two different parts of a photographic plate. This
demonstration clearly pointed to the possibility that ordinary elements might
exist as isotopes (varieties of atoms of the same element, which have the
same atomic number but differ in mass).
Democritus of Abdera (ca. 470-ca. 380 BC)
Greek philosopher who was a pupil of Leucippus and extended his mentor's
atomic theory. He tried to account for the observable properties of matters in
terms of the shapes of their constituent atoms, which he believed to be
eternal, indestructible, and unchanging. He also pursued studies in physics,
astronomy, zoology, botany, and medicine. In another example of amazing
insight, he maintained that the Milky Way galaxy was a conglomeration of
stars.
Chadwick, James (1891-1974)
The English physicist James Chadwick, is known for his discovery of the
neutron. He graduated from the University of Manchester (1911), and during
the 1920s he worked with Ernest Rutherford in the new field of nuclear
physics. His experiments on the bombardment of certain light elements with
alpha particles led to the discovery of the neutron (1932), for which he was
awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize for physics. During World War II, Chadwick
worked on the atomic bomb.

Planck, Max (1858-1947)

German physicist who formulated an equation describing the blackbody
spectrum in 1900. Wien and Rayleigh had also developed equations, but
Wien's only worked at high frequencies, and Rayleigh's only worked at low
frequencies. Planck's spectrum was obtained by postulating that energy was

directly proportional to frequency ( ). Planck believed that this

quantization applied only to the absorption and emission of energy by
matter, not to electromagnetic waves themselves. However, it turned out to
be much more general than he could have imagined.
Planck received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1918 for his quantum theory
after it had been successfully applied to the photoelectric effect by Einstein
and the atom by Niels Bohr. Planck showed there were difficulties in relating
the statistical theory of molecular motion to the thermodynamical approach.
He also criticized the probabilistic interpretation of entropy. He was the first

to write down the equation usually attributed to Boltzmann, . In

fact, the constant k (as opposed to R/NA, where R is the universal gas
constant and NA is Avogadro's number ) was first used by Planck in 1900.
Lorentz and others called k Planck's constant until 1911 (Pais 1991, p. 60),
when the term Boltzmann's constant became generally accepted.

de Broglie, Louis (1892-1987)

The French physicist Louis de Broglie, is known for his theory that matter has
the properties of both particles and waves. This particle-wave duality,
derived from the work of Albert Einstein and Max Planck, was experimentally
confirmed, for the electron, in 1927. He argued that since light could be seen
to behave under some conditions as particles (photoelectric effect) and other
times as waves (diffraction), we can also consider that matter has the same
ambiguity of possessing both particle and wave properties.
Schrödinger, Erwin (1887-1961)

Austrian physicist who invented wave mechanics in 1926. Wave mechanics

was an independent formulation of quantum mechanics to Heisenberg's
matrix mechanics. Like matrix mechanics, wave mechanics mathematically
described the behavior of electrons and atoms. The central equation of wave
mechanics, now known as the Schrödinger equation, turned out to be much
simpler for physicists to solve in most cases.

Goldstein, Eugen (1850-1930)

In 1886 Eugen Goldstein noted that cathode-ray tubes with a perforated

cathode emit a glow from the end of the tube near the cathode. Goldstein
concluded that in addition to the electrons, or cathode rays, that travel from
the negatively charged cathode toward the positively charged anode, there
is another ray that travels in the opposite direction, from the anode toward
the cathode. Because these rays pass through the holes, or channels, in the
cathode, Goldstein called them canal rays. Since these canal rays travel in
the opposite direction from the cathode rays, they must carry the opposite
charge.

Crookes, William (1832-1919)

Sir William Crookes was an English chemist and physicist. In 1861, Crookes
discovered a previously unknown element with a bright green emission line
in its spectrum and named the element thallium, from the Greek thallos, a
green shoot. Crookes also identified the first known sample of helium, in
1895. He was the inventor of the Crookes radiometer, which today is made
and sold as a novelty item. He also developed the Crookes tubes,
investigating canal rays.
In his investigations of the conduction of electricity in low pressure gases, he
discovered that as the pressure was lowered, the negative electrode
(cathode) appeared to emit rays (the so-called cathode rays, now known to
be a stream of free electrons, and used in cathode ray display devices). As
these examples indicate, he was a pioneer in the construction and use of
vacuum tubes for the study of physical phenomena. He was, as a
consequence, one of the first scientists to investigate what are now called
plasmas. He also devised one of the first instruments for the study of nuclear
radioactivity, the spinthariscope.
Heisenberg, Werner (1901-1976)
He did important work in nuclear and particle physics, but his most
significant contribution was to the development of quantum mechanics. He is
best known for his uncertainty principle, which restricts the accuracy with
which some properties of atoms and particles--such as position and linear
momentum--can be determined simultaneously. A lecture series by Niels
Bohr convinced him to work on quantum theory. He went to Bohr's
Copenhagen institute, where he collaborated with Dutch physicist Hendryk
Kramers, and then to the University of Gottingen. There, in 1925, Heisenberg
invented matrix mechanics, the first version of quantum mechanics. In
subsequent work with German physicists Max Born and Pascual Jordan, he
extended this into a complete mathematical theory of the behavior of atoms
and their constituents.
The Pauli Exclusion Principle
The Pauli Exclusion Principle was postulated in an attempt to explain some of
the properties of electrons in an atom. This principle says

(Actually, protons and neutrons obey the same principle, while photons do
not). By ``state'' here we mean a set of properties, such as energy, that
characterize an electron.
This principle applies to more complex atoms containing more than one
electron. However, in these atoms a complication arises, in that a more
rigorous treatment of the problem of an electron orbiting about a proton
reveals that, for each value of the integer n of the Bohr model, there can be
2n2 distinct states that a given electron can occupy.
Let us now consider moving up the periodic table. Starting with Hydrogen,
we have one electron, which would go in one of the two possible n = 1 levels.
For Helium, the next element, we add one more electron, which will go in the
second n = 1 level. For the third element, Lithium, we have to add one
electron, but the n = 1 level is already filled, so we have to place this
electron in the n = 2 level. We can then add more and more electrons to the
n = 2 level until the element Neon, which will have 8 electrons in the n = 2
level, which fills that level. The next element, Sodium, will thus have to have
one electron in the n = 3 level. And so on.
Although these more complex atoms are much more difficult to analyze than
hydrogen, we can see already a particular pattern developing with this
simple analysis. The elements Helium and Neon have filled n = 1 and n = 2
levels, or shells, respectively. These two elements are inert gases, which
mean that they do not bond readily with other elements. It thus seems that
the tendency of an atom to bond with other atoms has something to do with
the outer electron shell being filled or not (at least for these lower shells -
this analysis becomes more complicated for heavier elements).
Hund’s Rule
When electrons are put into orbitals having the same energy, degenerate
orbitals, one electron is put into each orbital before putting a second electron
into an orbital.
Around each atomic nucleus, electrons occupy energy levels termed shells.
Each shell is identified with quantum number, n, that defines the main
energy level. Each main level is made up of a number of sublevels. These
sublevels are identified by their shapes: s sublevels have 1 orbital, p
sublevels have 3 orbitals, d sublevels have 5 orbitals; and f. sublevels have 7
orbitals. Each orbital can contain only 3 electrons spinning in opposite
directions.
Although each suborbital can hold two electrons, the electrons all carry
negative charges and, because like charges repel, electrons repel each other.
In accord with Hund's rule, electrons space themselves as far apart as
possible by occupying all available vacant suborbitals before pairing up with
another electron. The unpaired electrons all have the same spin quantum
number (represented in electron configuration diagrams with arrows all
pointing either upward or downward).