The Modern Development of Atomic Theory
According to Democritus, “Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.” This conveys the controversy in scientific investigations made in defining a singular molecule. Since 460 BC, atomism has been an alternating concept of chemistry. Several significant scientists have contributed to this field profoundly. The modern development of the atomic theory is based on researches and discoveries of Democritus, John Dalton, J.J. Thomson, Robert Andrews Milikan, Ernest Rutherford, James Chadwick, and Niels Bohr.
Robinson, Bertsch, both Professors of Physics, and McGrayne, a science writer, wrote for Encyclopedia Britannica defining an atom as the “smallest unit into which matter can …show more content…
The latter is described simply as nothing, or the negation of body.” In turn, Democritus’s proposal lead to John Dalton’s conception of what we know today as the Atomic Theory. Which, according to Boundless Chemistry, was the first credited modern theory. As stated, “the English chemist and meteorologist John Dalton is credited with the first modern atomic theory, as explained in his A New System of Chemical Philosophy. Dalton’s experiments with gases led to some of the earliest measurements of atomic masses and a concept of atomic structure and reactivity. Dalton’s atomic theory contained the following ideas: All atoms of a given element are identical. The atoms of different elements vary in mass and size. Atoms are indestructible. Chemical reactions may result in their rearrangement, but not their creation or destruction. Dalton also outlined a law of multiple proportions, which described how reactants will combine in set ratios. Like the early philosophers, Dalton’s theories were not popularly accepted for much of the 19th century, but his ideas have since been accepted, with amendments addressing subatomic particles and the interconversion of energy and mass.” An …show more content…
Thomson, Robert Andrews Millikan, Ernest Rutherford, James Chadwick, and Niels Bohr were involved in shaping the atomic theory we know today in chemistry. Initiated by Democritus’s introduction to the concept of atom, Dalton proposal of the Atomic Theory, and Thomson proof of the existence of electrons. In addition, the mass and charge of electrons investigated by Millikan and the location of the nucleus and electron brought to attention by Rutherford. Finally, the neutron’s existence proven by Chadwick and the electron shells made known by Bohr. Similar to the modern atomic theory, alternating scientific concepts encourage the proposal of new ideas and leading of discoveries based on pre-existing concepts. Not of only scientific but also linguistic, philological, sociological, and philosophical, since all academic fields share the same basis of rationale allowing interconnection to occur. By noting that in science atoms are mostly empty space, and acknowledging that chaos in Greek means “gap” referring to the same empty space, we could define Nietzsche’s anti-conformist Ubermensch commentary “one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star” with greater breadth than as a belief that self-actualization derives from unorganized religion and disorder of moral and ethical codes for the morality police and false virtue are nonexistent; rather, everything is composed of atoms, being empty space and