Atomic Structure

The concept of the atom has existed since the 5th century BC, but it was not until the beginning of the 19th century that this concept was developed into a scientific theory. Almost as soon as the modern atomic theory was established, it was discovered that atoms were not the basic building blocks that were being sought. Instead, atoms consist of electrons that are bound to a tiny nucleus. The nucleus is made of neutrons and protons. For some time it seemed possible that these objects could be the fundamental building blocks, but in the 1960s it was found that the neutron and proton have structure as well.
Today, all the matter in the universe is viewed as being composed of three kinds of ...

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not easy to establish. Indirect evidence for molecules was strong during the second half of the 19th century, and the first explicit evidence was found when Brownian motion was correctly understood and studied in about 1906 by physicists Albert Einstein and Jean-Baptiste Perrin. There are many kinds of molecules, and it was clear that simplifying ideas were needed. The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev argued that there was a set of more basic entities of which all molecules are constructed, the chemical elements, which consist of atoms of only one kind. In about 1869 he published his periodic table, which exhibited many regularities and sets of recurring properties among these elements.
Even while the existence of atoms was being established, new experimental evidence showed that there would be another stage of matter because atoms were not pointlike objects. One clue was the discovery of the electron in 1897. Then in 1911 the British physicist Ernest Rutherford aimed alpha ...

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Added: 10/7/2004 04:03:38 PM
Category: Science & Nature
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 827
Pages: 4

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