Old, Wrong & Greek
This old Greek guy was the first to suggest that all matter is made of indivisible little pieces.
Who is Democritus?
This old Englishman was the first to revive the idea of atoms using experimental evidence.
Who is John Dalton?
This person's model of the atom imagined it as a solid indestructible sphere, sort of like a tiny billiard ball.
Who is Dalton?
Much like the central unit of a cell, this is the word used to describe the center of an atom.
What is a nucleus?
This subatomic particle has a positive charge.
What is a proton?
This word is what "atomos" translates into in English.
What is uncuttable?
Ernest Rutherford shot a beam of alpha particles at a thin foil made of this shiny metal.
What is gold?
This person's model of the atom imagined electrons spread out evenly throughout the atom, much like blueberries in a blueberry muffin.
(aka "the plum pudding model")
Who is Thompson?
This is the force that holds protons and neutrons together in the center of an atom.
What is the strong nuclear force?
This subatomic particle has a much smaller mass than the other two.
What is an electron?
The Greeks came to their ideas by "reason and logic." This didn't do any of these.
What are experiments?
According to the "plum pudding" model, alpha particles should shoot straight through the foil. However, Rutherford observed that a few of them did this - indicating that they hit something solid.
What is bounce backwards?
These (name one or both) people were the first to include a nucleus in their models of the atom.
Who are Rutherford and Chadwick?
Because energized gases only emit light in certain wavelengths, we know that electrons can only exist in these.
What are "energy shells" or "energy levels"?
These subatomic particles take up very little space compared to the overall size of an atom.
What are protons and neutrons?
The idea of "atomos" was abandoned because this more prominent and famous (though still very wrong) old Greek guy disagreed with it.
Who is Aristotle?
JJ Thompson used these devices to figure out that electrons exist.
What are cathode ray tubes?
Don't yawn! This Danish guy was the first to more accurately describe the behaviour of electrons.
Who is Bohr?
Electrons don't really zoom around in nice circular orbits. The slightly more correct (though less helpful to think about) model for electrons is that they spread out in different shapes, much like these fluffy airborne structures.
What are clouds?
This subatomic particle is always getting free samples.
"For you, no charge!"
What is a neutron?
Since the existence of "atomos" was not believed, the popular theory for the next 2000+ years was that all matter was made of these 4 things.
What are earth, fire, air, and water?
These special lines of light are formed when gases are energized. They helped to show that electrons don't zoom around randomly outside the nucleus.
What are spectral lines?
Famous for thinking about a cat, this Austrian guy pioneered quantum mechanics and mathematically described electrons as "waves of probability."
Who is Schrödinger?
This specific type of atom doesn't have any neutrons.
(Think periodic table.)
What is hydrogen?
Of the two subatomic particles found in the nucleus, this one has VERY SLIGHTLY more mass.
What is a neutron?