Confirming the Existence of Atoms
Discovering Atoms
Atomic History: Democritus
- The Greek philosopher Democritus (the same guy who invented democracy) hypothesized that matter was made of small spheres.
- He believed these spheres to be indestructible and infinite in number.
Atomic History: Dalton
In the 1800s James Dalton Notices that elements always react in whole number ratios.
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Brownian Motion
Brownian Motion
Atomic Structure
Do atoms have constituents (parts), or are they in fact indestructible?
Atomic Nuclei
Soft and Fluffy
Hard
Peeking Inside Atoms
J.J. Thomson Discovers the Electron
Milikan Finds the Mass of the Electron
Deeper Structure
Do the parts of atoms have parts?
Yes!
Well, actually... maybe
How Did We Figure This Out?
Smashing Atoms
The analogy is often given that doing physics with “colliders” (a more technical term for “subatomic-particle-smashers”) is like smashing fine watches together and trying to figure out how they work from the pieces that come flying out! There is merit to this analogy, but there’s something very important that is left out.
The act of colliding subatomic particles at very high energy is not merely a destructive act; it is, more profoundly, a creative one.
Science's Most Famous Equation
Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.
An Interesting Question
If all of scientific knowledge was to be destroyed, and you could leave only one piece of information for future generations, what would you tell them?
