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Chemistry library
Course: Chemistry library > Unit 7
Lesson 1: History of atomic structureDalton's atomic theory
The postulates of Dalton's atomic theory: which points do we still use today, and what have we learned since Dalton?
Key Points
- Dalton's atomic theory was the first complete attempt to describe all matter in terms of atoms and their properties.
- Dalton based his theory on the law of conservation of mass and the law of constant composition.
- The first part of his theory states that all matter is made of atoms, which are indivisible.
- The second part of the theory says all atoms of a given element are identical in mass and properties.
- The third part says compounds are combinations of two or more different types of atoms.
- The fourth part of the theory states that a chemical reaction is a rearrangement of atoms.
- Parts of the theory had to be modified based on the discovery of subatomic particles and isotopes.
Chemists ask questions.
Chemistry is full of unanswered questions. One of the first questions people have been asking since ancient times is What is the world made of?
That is, if we were to zoom in ~100000000000 times—that is 11 zeros!—on the skin of your fingertip, what would we see? Would that look any different from zooming in on, say, an apple? If we then cut up the apple into tinier and tinier pieces using an imaginary tiny knife, would we reach a point where the pieces could no longer be cut any smaller? What would those pieces look like, and would they still have apple properties?
The answers to these questions are fundamental to modern chemistry, and chemists didn't agree on the answer until a few hundred years ago. Thanks to scientists such as John Dalton, modern chemists think of the world in terms of atoms. Even if we can't see atoms with our naked eye, properties of matter such as color, phase (e.g., solid, liquid, gas), and even smell come from interactions on an atomic level. This article will discuss John Dalton's atomic theory, which was the first complete attempt to describe all matter in terms of atoms and their properties.
Basis for Dalton's theory
Dalton based his theory on two laws: the law of conservation of mass and the law of constant composition.
The law of conservation of mass says that matter is not created or destroyed in a closed system. That means if we have a chemical reaction, the amount of each element must be the same in the starting materials and the products. We use the law of conservation of mass every time we balance equations!
The law of constant composition says that a pure compound will always have the same proportion of the same elements. For example, table salt, which has the molecular formula
Concept check: A time-travelling scientist from the early 1700s decides to run the following experiment: he takes a 10 gram sample of ethanol (
Dalton's atomic theory
Part 1: All matter is made of atoms.
Dalton hypothesized that the law of conservation of mass and the law of definite proportions could be explained using the idea of atoms. He proposed that all matter is made of tiny indivisible particles called atoms, which he imagined as "solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, movable particle(s)".
It is important to note that since Dalton did not have the necessary instruments to see or otherwise experiment on individual atoms, he did not have any insight into whether they might have any internal structure. We might visualize Dalton's atom as a piece in a molecular modeling kit, where different elements are spheres of different sizes and colors. While this is a handy model for some applications, we now know that atoms are far from being solid spheres.
Part 2: All atoms of a given element are identical in mass and properties.
Dalton proposed that every single atom of an element, such as gold, is the same as every other atom of that element. He also noted that the atoms of one element differ from the atoms of all other elements. Today, we still know this to be mostly true. A sodium atom is different from a carbon atom. Elements may share some similar boiling points, melting points, and electronegativities, but no two elements have the same exact set of properties.
Part 3: Compounds are combinations of two or more different types of atoms.
In the third part of Dalton's atomic theory, he proposed that compounds are combinations of two or more different types of atoms. An example of such a compound is table salt. Table salt is a combination of two separate elements with unique physical and chemical properties. The first, sodium, is a highly reactive metal. The second, chlorine, is a toxic gas. When they react, the atoms combine in a 1:1 ratio to form white crystals of
Since atoms are indivisible, they will always combine in simple whole number ratios. Therefore, it would not make sense to write a formula such as
Part 4: A chemical reaction is a rearrangement of atoms.
In the fourth and final part of Dalton's atomic theory, he suggested that chemical reactions don't destroy or create atoms. They merely rearranged the atoms. Using our salt example again, when sodium combines with chlorine to make salt, both the sodium and chlorine atoms still exist. They simply rearrange to form a new compound.
What have we learned since Dalton proposed his theory?
The short answer: a lot! For instance, we now know that atoms are not indivisible—as stated in part one—because they are made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons. The modern picture of an atom is very different from Dalton's "solid, massy" particle. In fact, experiments by Ernest Rutherford, Hans Geiger, and Ernest Marsden showed that atoms are mostly made up of empty space.
Part two of Dalton's theory had to be modified after mass spectrometry experiments demonstrated that atoms of the same element can have different masses because the number of neutrons can vary for different isotopes of the same element. For more on isotopes, you can watch this video on atomic number, mass number, and isotopes.
Despite these caveats, Dalton's atomic theory is still mostly true, and it forms the framework of modern chemistry. Scientists have even developed the technology to see the world on an atomic level!
Summary
- Dalton's atomic theory was the first complete attempt to describe all matter in terms of atoms and their properties.
- Dalton based his theory on the law of conservation of mass and the law of constant composition.
- The first part of his theory states that all matter is made of atoms, which are indivisible.
- The second part of the theory says all atoms of a given element are identical in mass and properties.
- The third part says compounds are combinations of two or more different types of atoms.
- The fourth part of the theory states that a chemical reaction is a rearrangement of atoms.
- Parts of the theory had to be modified based on the existence of subatomic particles and isotopes.
Want to join the conversation?
Why is Daltons theory still taught if it is not 100% accurate?(270 votes)
It is also helpful to think about how science is always evolving-we are always learning new things and modifying existing theories to take into account new discoveries. That happened to Dalton's atomic theory, and that will likely to happen to many more theories to come!(395 votes)
Why is not possible to further separate atoms??(42 votes)
Actually, it is. Atoms are made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons. However, if you remove any of these particles the atom will have different properties. An atom is the smallest particle of an element that has all the properties of the element. For example, sodium in its pure form reacts violently with water. When you take away one of its electrons, it becomes part of table salt and no longer reacts with water.(147 votes)
In part 3 of the article,(Compounds are combinations of 2 or more different atoms) how is it possible that we don't get affected by the different properties of the elements and get sick if chlorine is a TOXIC gas and sodium is a highly REACTIVE metal?(21 votes)
Sodium and chlorine are toxic/explosive because they are unstable and therefore very reactive. If you look at the electrons in the shells, they want to react to fill their outer shell of electrons. Once they react, they exist as ions and then lose their property of being super-reactive because they then become stable.(57 votes)
Why can't there be half an atom? And why are chemists so sure?(18 votes)- We say that an atom can't be cut in half, not because it can't actually be split (aka nuclear fission - reactor, bomb) but rather because the resulting parts would no longer be atoms the elements the you started with. Ex: you can't split a Helium atom because to do so would result in 1 or 2 Hydrogen atoms and some leftover bits - but it would no longer BE Helium.(63 votes)
- cant we put protons (h+) into a nucleus of he (he+) to get nucleus of an new element(9 votes)
To do this would require nuclear fusion (combining smaller atomic nuclei to form a larger one), a process which is not yet quite possible in the lab. It would produce more energy than an atomic bomb would.
It is not nonexistent, however. This process occurs constantly in the core of the sun - basically, what you asked about is what gives Earth the energy necessary to support human life!(17 votes)
Did Dalton make up another theory that we can use instead of the one that was originally created?(7 votes)
Well there are several parts to Dalton's theory. His only theory is the atomic theory and today we know that atoms can be destroyed by nuclear reactions but not by chemical reactions. Also, there are different kinds of atoms (differing by their masses) within an element that are known as "isotopes", but isotopes of an element have the same chemical properties. Hope that helped. But his theory was not 100% correct.
-http://www.iun.edu/~cpanhd/C101webnotes/composition/dalton.html(11 votes)
Didn't Antoine Lavoisier propose the law of conservation of mass?(8 votes)- A peer reviewed journal, ERIC, published "A Historical Note on the Conservation of Mass." This states in their abstract that this is not entirely true:
"Although most historians of science attribute the formulation of the law of conservation of matter in chemical reactions to Antoine Lavoisier at the end of the eighteenth century, several earlier researchers had already assumed this law in their work. These researchers include Joseph Black, Henry Cavendish, M. V. Lomonosov, and Jean Rey."(9 votes)
well as far as I understand this concept,atoms cannot bee further divided but we know that atoms are further divided into fundamental particles as protons,electrons and neutrons.So why does this conclusion given by dalton sir still hold true??(7 votes)
Many of Dalton's original postulates of an atomic theory have had to be modified in the light of later discoveries.
As far as chemical reactions go, the essential concept that chemical reactions involve atoms and molecules still remains.
In many other cases, chemists have to use the concept of electrons, protons, etc.
Dalton's atomic formed the basis of chemistry, but modern chemists have long since adapted their understanding to include later discoveries.(8 votes)
- Why can you not add protons/neutrons/electrons to an atom?(2 votes)
- You cannot add protons and neutrons because they are in the center of an atom and held tighly by the strong nuclear force. However, you can add electrons to atoms and this happens all the time: the gaining and losing of electrons is precisely what chemical reactions are!(14 votes)
- What is the difference between an element and molecule?(4 votes)
in summary:
element - a basic substance that can't be simplified (hydrogen, oxygen, gold, etc...)
atom - the smallest amount of an element
molecule - two or more atoms that are chemically joined together (H2, O2, H2O, etc...)
compound - a molecule that contains more than one element (H2O, C6H12O6, etc...)(4 votes)
