NS1300 – Emergence of Modern Science

The Atom

If you cut something in half, then half again, then half

again, and so on, do you ever get to a point where you can’t cut

stuff up into anything smaller?• What is stuff made of, anyway?

• Can we make our own stuff?• What are metamaterials?• What other new materials are on the horizon?

The Atom

• Atomism

• The Exile of the Atom

• The atomic renaissance

• The search for the periodic table

Discovering the Atom

• Gas laws

• The law of definite proportions

• Radioactivity

• Brownian Motion

• X-ray crystallography

• Atomic microscopy

Atom Models

• Dalton’s Model

• Rutherford’s Model

• Bohr’s Model

• Are any of them right?

Discovering the Elements

• The story of the periodic table

The Periodic Table Tells the Story

The Making of an Atom

• The nucleus– Protons– neutrons

• Electron Shells– Electrons– Pauli Exclusion Principle– Electron levels– Valence

• Quantum Mechanics

Atoms and Light

• Photoelectric Effect

• Energy Levels are “quantized”

• Photosynthesis

Inside the Atom

• The universe is mostly empty space– Atoms• Electrons• Electron Clouds

• Nucleus– Protons– neutrons

• E = mc2

Atomic Mass

• Atomic Number

• Atomic Mass

Nuclear Forces

• Strong Force

• Weak Force

• Electromagnetic Force

• Wherefore art thou Grav-ity?

Isotopes

• Stable Isotopes

• Radioactive Isotopes

Radioactivity

• Alpha Decay

• Beta Decay

• Gamma Radiation

Radiometric Dating

• Half-Life

• Decay Chains

Nuclear Reactions

• Fission

• Fusion

Quiz• 1. T or F, electrons are smaller than protons.

• 2. T or F, the strong force produces gravity.

• 3. T or F, isotopes have more or less protons than normal atoms of a specific element.

• 4. T or F, fission occurs by the splitting of atomic nuclei.

• 5. T or F, this is a accurate model of an atom: