![]() Dalton had been teaching chemistry for several years, but he had not yet conducted actual research in this field. Instead, he concentrated on determining the relative masses of various types of atoms, a process he claimed could only be accomplished by taking into account the number of atoms of each element present in various chemical compounds. His claim that each element had its own type of atom seemed counterintuitive to those who believed that having so many different fundamental particles would destroy nature’s simplicity, but Dalton dismissed their concerns as fanciful. Although this view was later proven to be incorrect, it served a useful purpose in allowing him to abandon the notion, held by many previous atomists from the Greek philosopher Democritus to the 18th-century mathematician and astronomer Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich, that atoms of all kinds of matter are the same.ĭalton asserted that atoms of different elements differ in size and mass, and this assertion is central to his atomic theory. This model explained why each gas in a mixture behaved independently. ![]() He based his partial pressure theory on the idea that only like atoms in a gas mixture repel one another, whereas unlike atoms appear to react indifferently to one another. Attempts to trace Dalton’s development of this theory have failed even Dalton’s own recollections on the subject are incomplete. Dalton’s atomic theory was by far his most influential work in chemistry. molecules).ĭalton also offered symbols for several elements’ atoms (later replaced by the present notation using letters). (4) When atoms of different elements combine in simple ratios to generate ‘compound atoms,’ ‘compound elements’ (i.e. (3) It is impossible to produce or destroy an atom. (2) Atoms of the same element are all identical, whereas atoms of different elements are of distinct sorts.
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