• Question: when was the theory of eletronic configuration of atoms discovered

    Asked by terimater to Aime, Akshat, Diana, Gemma, Judith on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Akshat Rathi

      Akshat Rathi answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Neils Bohr suggested the theory for the first time in 1923. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_configuration#History

      It is fascinating to think that in under 100 years we have gone from trying to understand what elements are to actually synthesising molecules like this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12) and even new elements altogether (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24-pj9uG_8g)!

    • Photo: Aimé Fournier

      Aimé Fournier answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Ditto.

    • Photo: Judith McCann

      Judith McCann answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Well, I’m at Manchester now and it was here that Rutherford did an experiment that made him realise that atoms are even made up of electrons around a nucleus! Before this people thought that atoms were like one mass, having postive and negative charges like raisins in a pudding…

      He aimed alpha rays (radiation given off by radium) at a really thin sheet of gold, hardly any of the rays were stopped by the nucleus of the atoms, he realised that the nucleus contained almost all of the mass of the atoms but occupied only a tiny amount of space, and that electrons made up a cloud around it.

    • Photo: Diana Samuel

      Diana Samuel answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      In agreement with Akshat, Bohr was the first to recognise the significance of the electronic structure of atoms.

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