Famous Scientists
Experiment & Discovery
Models/Theories of the Atom
Disproved
Assorted
100

This scientist gained celebrity status after discovering that certain vacuum tubes emitted a form of energy that could be used to "see" through objects.

Who is Wilhelm Roentgen?

100

This was discovered when a fluorescent screen across a dark room shimmered in the presence of an active cathode ray tube, covered in opaque paper.

What are X-rays?

100

This theory held that there was a point at which a substance could be broken down no further; there existed tiny, elementary, uncuttable, particles for each individual substance

What is Democritus' Atomic theory?

100

Terra lapidea, terra pinguis, and terra fluida replaced air and fire as elements in this person's model.

Who is J.J. Becher?

100

This was the metal alchemists sought to make, though they never did.

What is gold?

200

This scientist demonstrated that cathode rays were composed of tiny "corpuscles" with a negative charge and a tiny mass.

Who is J.J. Thomson

200

This experiment involved bombarding a very thin sheet of metal with alpha particles to prove the existence of the nucleus.

What is the Gold Foil experiment?

or

What is the Geiger-Marsden Experiment?

200

This model has a nucleus and electrons in specific energy levels, it was in part derived from the emission spectrum of excited hydrogen gas.

What is the Bohr Model?

200

Lavoisier used this element to prove that Joseph Priestley's idea of "de-phlogisticated air" was not what Priestley believed it was.

What is oxygen?

200

This invention led to the invention of the Crookes Tube, which led to the invention of the cathode ray tube and x-ray tube.

What is the Geissler Tube?

300

This scientist divided radiation into three categories; alpha, beta, and gamma and used alpha radiation to prove the existence of the nucleus.

Who is Ernest Rutherford?

300

These "rays" appeared to emanate from the negatively charged electrode in a crookes tube.

What are cathode rays?

300

This model of the atom had negatively charged "corpuscles" dispersed in a positive matrix.

What is the "Plum Pudding" model?

or

What is J.J. Thomson's model?

300

This ancient tradition held that elements could be transmuted through reactions and superstitious means into other, more perfect substances.

What is Alchemy?

300

This was the name given to oxygen by its discoverer, Joseph Priestley.

What is de-phlogisticated air?

400

This scientist discovered radioactivity after a failed experiment with fluorescence.

Who is Henri Becquerel?

400

The first directly observable evidence for this theory was shown when botanist Robert Brown, while looking at pollen grains in water under a microscope, noted that small particles in the water were jiggling and moving around randomly.

What is Atomic Theory?

What is the existence of atoms/molecules?

400

This Theory held that:

1.Elements are made of extremely small particles called atoms.

2.Atoms of a given element are identical in size, mass and other properties; atoms of different elements differ in size, mass and other properties.

3.Atoms cannot be subdivided, created or destroyed.

4.Atoms of different elements combine in simple whole-number ratios to form chemical compounds.

5.In chemical reactions, atoms are combined, separated or rearranged.

What is John Dalton's atomic theory?

400

These elements made up everything according to Aristotle.

What are Earth, Fire, Air, and Water? 

(answer could also include Aether)

400

These two elements were discovered in trace amounts in the ore called pitchblende

What are polonium and radium?

500

This scientist coined the term "radioactivity" while studying an ore of uranium.  She discovered two new elements, and is the only scientist in history to win a Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields

Who is Marie Skłodowska-Curie?

500

This was discovered when the testing of fluorescent uranium salts/ore in sunlight had to be postponed due to weather.

What is radiation/radioactivity?

500

This is our most thorough model of the atom.

What is the Quantum model?

500

This disproved theory postulated that combustible materials held a fire like substance which was released upon burning. When the air became saturated with this substance combustion ceased.

What is Phlogiston theory

500

This scientist, lauded as the father of modern chemistry, lost his head during the french revolution and was pardoned a month later.

Who is Antoine Lavoisier?

M
e
n
u