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Dalton is credited with the original atomic theory. He thought atoms were 'indivisible' and had no smaller parts.

Thompsom discovered the electron, but hand no idea of atomic structure, and his theory was called the 'plum pedding' model of the atom. There was some positive thick fluid that the electrons were stuck in. His experiments knoched out electrons, but he could not knock out positive particles, so he thought there were none.

Rutherford supervised and helped two grad, students with what is referred to as the gold foil experiment. He took the results of the experiments and mathematically analyzed them to find theat there was a very heavy, positively charged, very small central part of the atom. He called it the nucleus. So he is credited with the discovery of the nucleus, which changed atomic theory again to say that there is a heavy positively charge nucleus in the atom. But he still didn't know the relationship of the nucleus and the electron.

Later Bohr came up with a theory of electrons in exact orbits, like planets orbiting the sun. Even later, more scientists changed this theory.

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12y ago

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