I've already told you, for instance about the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier who proposed the Law In atomic theory didn't come along for nearly 2,300 years.

Once Leucippus and Democritus came up with the general idea of atoms it'd be pretty easy for someone else to take that little indivisible ball and run with it. But before we do I wanted to set aside some time to explain how we know what we know about the atom today, and how we know that we're not quite done figuring it out. We've been talking a lot about the fine details ofĬhemistry in recent weeks and we're gonna keep doing that as we move on to nuclear chemistry, and then to the basics But, as has been the case in all science, each scientist built on what As time went on many more were the result of rigorous experimentation. Some models like that of Leucippus were just blind guesses. Hundreds if not thousands of different insights. Theory as we know it today is the product of Then this makes a certain amount of sense if you don't happen to haveĪccess to electron microscopes or cathode ray tubes or the work of generations Clay atoms were softer and attached by ball socket joints that So they thought that iron atoms were hard and stuck together with hooks. Properties of each substance the forms of the atom. Thought that iron was made up of iron particles and clay was made up of clay particles and cheese was made up of cheese particles. The name a tomos, which means uncuttable or indivisible. In half enough times, eventually you'll reach a particle that can't be cut anymore. Special they just thought that if you cut something No one knows how theyĭeveloped this concept but they didn't think the particles were particularly

That's when Greek philosopher Leucippus and his pupil Democritus first came up with the idea that matter isĬomposed of tiny particles. And like way more than they thought they knew 2,500 years ago. Know more about atomic theory then the scientists did If you understand enoughĪbout atoms to visualize any of those things then you How do you picture an atom in your mind? Like this, or like this,

Development of atomic theory