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The current theoretical model of the atom involves a dense nucleus surrounded by a probabilistic "cloud" of electrons. Atomic theory is the scientific theory that matter is composed of particles called atoms. The definition of the word "atom" has changed over the years in response to scientific discoveries.
Atomic orbitals are basic building blocks of the atomic orbital model (or electron cloud or wave mechanics model), a modern framework for visualizing submicroscopic behavior of electrons in matter. In this model, the electron cloud of an atom may be seen as being built up (in approximation) in an electron configuration that is a product of ...
The Bohr–Sommerfeld model (also known as the Sommerfeld model or Bohr–Sommerfeld theory) was an extension of the Bohr model to allow elliptical orbits of electrons around an atomic nucleus. Bohr–Sommerfeld theory is named after Danish physicist Niels Bohr and German physicist Arnold Sommerfeld. Sommerfeld showed that, if electronic orbits ...
When Bohr began his work on a new atomic theory in the summer of 1912 [8]: 237 the atomic model proposed by J J Thomson, now known as the Plum pudding model, was the best available. [9]: 37 Thomson proposed a model with electrons rotating in coplanar rings within an atomic-sized, positively-charged, spherical volume. Thomson showed that this ...
But this ancient idea was based in philosophical reasoning rather than scientific reasoning. Modern atomic theory is not based on these old concepts. [2] [3] In the early 19th century, the scientist John Dalton found evidence that matter really is composed of discrete units, and so applied the word atom to those units. [4]
In a May 1911 paper, [8] Rutherford presented his own physical model for subatomic structure, as an interpretation for the unexpected experimental results. [3] In it, the atom is made up of a central charge (this is the modern atomic nucleus, though Rutherford did not use the term "nucleus" in his paper). Rutherford only committed himself to a ...
Thomson's model marks the moment when the development of atomic theory passed from chemists to physicists. While atomic theory was widely accepted by chemists by the end of the 19th century, physicists remained skeptical because the atomic model lacked any properties which concerned their field, such as electric charge, magnetic moment, volume, or absolute mass.
Atomic physics is the subfield of AMO that studies atoms as an isolated system of electrons and an atomic nucleus, while molecular physics is the study of the physical properties of molecules. The term atomic physics is often associated with nuclear power and nuclear bombs, due to the synonymous use of atomic and nuclear in standard English.