Most of us held the atom subject at school at a lesson in physics. If all the same you have forgotten what it consists of an atom, or just starting to pass the subject, this article is for you.
What is an atom
To understand what makes up the atom, you must first understand what it is like. Generally accepted thesis in the school curriculum in physics is that the atom - the smallest particle of a chemical element. Thus, the atoms is in everything that surrounds us. Be it animate or inanimate object, in the lower layers of the physiological and chemical, it is made up of atoms.
Atoms - the molecule. Despite this belief, there are elements that less atoms, e.g. quark. quarks topic affect neither in school nor in the university (except for special cases). Quark - chemical element that has no internal structure, i.e. their structure is much easier than the atom. At the moment, science knows 6 types of quarks.
What is an atom?
All objects around us, as has been said, consists of something. The room has a table and two chairs. Each piece of furniture, in turn, is made out of some material. In this case - from the tree. The tree consists of molecules, and these molecules - of atoms. And such examples are endless. But what it is in the atom itself?
Atom consists of a core which contains protons and neutrons. Protons - positively charged particles. Neutrons are the same as the name implies, neutrally charged, ie, They have no charge. Around atom is a field core (electric cloud), where the electrons move (negatively charged particles). The number of protons and electrons may differ from each other. It is this contrast is key to chemistry when we study the question of belonging to some kind of substance.
Atom, in which the number of the above particles is different, is called an ion. As you could already guess, ion may be negative and positive. He is negative if the number of electrons exceeds the number of protons. And on the contrary, if the protons are greater - the ion will be positive.
Atom in the representation of ancient thinkers and scientists
There are several very interesting assumptions about the atom. Below will be a list:
- Assumption of democritus. Democritis assumed that the property of the substance depends on the form of its atom. Thus, if something has a fluid property, this is due to the fact that atoms from which this liquid consists - smooth. Based on the logic of democritus, water atoms and, for example, milk are similar.
- Planetary assumptions. In the 20th century, some scientists presented the assumptions that the atom - there is a similarity of the planets. One such assumptions said the following: on the likeness of the Saturn planet, at the atom also has rings around the kernel, which moves electrons (the kernel is compared with the planet itself, and the electric cloud with Saturn rings). Despite the objective similarity with the proven theory, this version was denied. Similar was the assumption of Bora-Rostford, which was later refuted.
Despite this, you can safely say that Rutherford gave a big leap to understanding the real essence of the atom. He was right when he said that the atom is similar to the core, which in itself positively, and the atoms are moving around. The only error of its model is that the electrons that are around the atom are not moving at some particular direction. Their move is chaotic. It was proved and entered into science called a quantum mechanical model.
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