The 2,400-year search for the atom - Theresa Doud
-
0:07 - 0:09What do an ancient Greek philosopher
-
0:09 - 0:12and a 19th century Quaker
-
0:12 - 0:17have in common
with Nobel Prize-winning scientists? -
0:17 - 0:21Although they are separated
over 2,400 years of history, -
0:21 - 0:25each of them contributed
to answering the eternal question: -
0:25 - 0:27what is stuff made of?
-
0:27 - 0:31It was around 440 BCE
that Democritus first proposed -
0:31 - 0:35that everything in the world
was made up of tiny particles -
0:35 - 0:38surrounded by empty space.
-
0:38 - 0:42And he even speculated
that they vary in size and shape -
0:42 - 0:44depending on the substance they compose.
-
0:44 - 0:50He called these particles "atomos,"
Greek for indivisible. -
0:50 - 0:54His ideas were opposed by
the more popular philosophers of his day. -
0:54 - 0:57Aristotle, for instance, disagreed completely,
-
0:57 - 1:00stating instead that matter
was made of four elements: -
1:00 - 1:03earth, wind, water and fire,
-
1:03 - 1:07and most later scientists followed suit.
-
1:07 - 1:12Atoms would remain
all but forgotten until 1808, -
1:12 - 1:18when a Quaker teacher named John Dalton
sought to challenge Aristotelian theory. -
1:18 - 1:22Whereas Democritus's atomism
had been purely theoretical, -
1:22 - 1:26Dalton showed that common substances
always broke down into the same elements -
1:26 - 1:28in the same proportions.
-
1:28 - 1:31He concluded that the various compounds
-
1:31 - 1:34were combinations of atoms
of different elements, -
1:34 - 1:36each of a particular size and mass
-
1:36 - 1:40that could neither be created
nor destroyed. -
1:40 - 1:42Though he received
many honors for his work, -
1:42 - 1:46as a Quaker, Dalton lived modestly
until the end of his days. -
1:46 - 1:50Atomic theory was now accepted
by the scientific community, -
1:50 - 1:51but the next major advancement
-
1:51 - 1:54would not come
until nearly a century later -
1:54 - 2:00with the physicist J.J. Thompson's
1897 discovery of the electron. -
2:00 - 2:03In what we might call
the chocolate chip cookie model of the atom, -
2:03 - 2:08he showed atoms as
uniformly packed spheres of positive matter -
2:08 - 2:11filled with negatively charged electrons.
-
2:11 - 2:16Thompson won a Nobel Prize in 1906
for his electron discovery, -
2:16 - 2:19but his model of the atom
didn't stick around long. -
2:19 - 2:25This was because he happened
to have some pretty smart students, -
2:25 - 2:27including a certain Ernest Rutherford,
-
2:27 - 2:31who would become known
as the father of the nuclear age. -
2:31 - 2:34While studying the effects
of X-rays on gases, -
2:34 - 2:38Rutherford decided
to investigate atoms more closely -
2:38 - 2:43by shooting small, positively charged
alpha particles at a sheet of gold foil. -
2:43 - 2:45Under Thompson's model,
-
2:45 - 2:47the atom's thinly dispersed
positive charge -
2:47 - 2:51would not be enough
to deflect the particles in any one place. -
2:51 - 2:53The effect would have been
like a bunch of tennis balls -
2:53 - 2:56punching through a thin paper screen.
-
2:56 - 2:58But while most of the particles
did pass through, -
2:58 - 3:01some bounced right back,
-
3:01 - 3:06suggesting that the foil was more
like a thick net with a very large mesh. -
3:06 - 3:10Rutherford concluded that atoms
consisted largely of empty space -
3:10 - 3:12with just a few electrons,
-
3:12 - 3:15while most of the mass
was concentrated in the center, -
3:15 - 3:17which he termed the nucleus.
-
3:17 - 3:19The alpha particles
passed through the gaps -
3:19 - 3:24but bounced back from the dense,
positively charged nucleus. -
3:24 - 3:27But the atomic theory
wasn't complete just yet. -
3:27 - 3:32In 1913, another of Thompson's students
by the name of Niels Bohr -
3:32 - 3:34expanded on Rutherford's nuclear model.
-
3:34 - 3:38Drawing on earlier work
by Max Planck and Albert Einstein -
3:38 - 3:41he stipulated that electrons
orbit the nucleus -
3:41 - 3:44at fixed energies and distances,
-
3:44 - 3:50able to jump from one level to another,
but not to exist in the space between. -
3:50 - 3:53Bohr's planetary model took center stage,
-
3:53 - 3:56but soon, it too encountered
some complications. -
3:56 - 4:00Experiments had shown that rather than
simply being discrete particles, -
4:00 - 4:04electrons simultaneously
behaved like waves, -
4:04 - 4:08not being confined
to a particular point in space. -
4:08 - 4:11And in formulating
his famous uncertainty principle, -
4:11 - 4:14Werner Heisenberg showed
it was impossible to determine -
4:14 - 4:18both the exact
position and speed of electrons -
4:18 - 4:21as they moved around an atom.
-
4:21 - 4:23The idea that electrons
cannot be pinpointed -
4:23 - 4:26but exist within
a range of possible locations -
4:26 - 4:30gave rise to the current
quantum model of the atom, -
4:30 - 4:33a fascinating theory
with a whole new set of complexities -
4:33 - 4:36whose implications
have yet to be fully grasped. -
4:36 - 4:40Even though our understanding
of atoms keeps changing, -
4:40 - 4:42the basic fact of atoms remains,
-
4:42 - 4:45so let's celebrate
the triumph of atomic theory -
4:45 - 4:47with some fireworks.
-
4:47 - 4:50As electrons circling an atom
shift between energy levels, -
4:50 - 4:55they absorb or release energy in the form
of specific wavelengths of light, -
4:55 - 4:58resulting in
all the marvelous colors we see. -
4:58 - 5:01And we can imagine Democritus
watching from somewhere, -
5:01 - 5:04satisfied that over two millennia later,
-
5:04 - 5:06he turned out
to have been right all along.
- Title:
- The 2,400-year search for the atom - Theresa Doud
- Description:
-
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-2-400-year-search-for-the-atom-theresa-doud
How do we know what matter is made of? The quest for the atom has been a long one, beginning 2,400 years ago with the work of a Greek philosopher and later continued by a Quaker and a few Nobel Prize-winning scientists. Theresa Doud details the history of atomic theory.
Lesson by Theresa Doud, animation by TED-Ed.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TED-Ed
- Duration:
- 05:23
Jessica Ruby approved English subtitles for The 2,400-year search for the atom - Theresa Doud | ||
Jessica Ruby edited English subtitles for The 2,400-year search for the atom - Theresa Doud | ||
Jessica Ruby accepted English subtitles for The 2,400-year search for the atom - Theresa Doud | ||
Jessica Ruby edited English subtitles for The 2,400-year search for the atom - Theresa Doud | ||
Jessica Ruby edited English subtitles for The 2,400-year search for the atom - Theresa Doud | ||
Jennifer Cody edited English subtitles for The 2,400-year search for the atom - Theresa Doud | ||
Jennifer Cody edited English subtitles for The 2,400-year search for the atom - Theresa Doud |