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Introduction
An atomic particle is defined as a unit of matter or energy that has been made up fundamentally of matter. There have been different theories at different times regarding the nature of this particle but in the modern day atomic theory, an atom has a nucleus in its center that is the densest part of the entire particle (NDT, 2016). This part is also the core of the particle. Inside the nucleus, there are protons and neutrons that are subatomic particles. There is a charge on each of the subatomic particles and protons are negatively charged subatomic particles. The study of atomic energy and particles is very important in the modern day physics. There are so many applications of this particle that it has become inevitable for the science students to educate themselves about this.
Over the period of time, since their first discovery, several different physicists and nuclear scientists have presented their perspectives regarding atomic particles and in order to understand the background of the evolution of the theory based on atomic particles, it is essential that we examine the history of this physical phenomenon and the works of different physicists on this subject.
History of Discovery:
Atomic particles have been sought for since the times when it was first conceived that matter can be simplified i.e. broken into finer and finer pieces. This provoked the understanding that there can potentially be a common particle that constructs each and everything that exists.
The relation of atomic physics dates back to the time of Greek philosophers who were of the view that there is an elementary particle that makes everything. This was the time when religion and belief structures were being challenged, and the concept of atheism was taking rise.
The atomists believed that everything that exists is because of a natural phenomenon and not because an unseen maker has made it. In the 6the century BC, Leucippus, Democritus and Epicurus studied this and later, Indian scientists like Kanada, Dignaga, and Dharmakirti as well as Muslim scientists like Ibn al-Haytham, Ibn Sina and Muhammad al-Ghazali all placed the idea of the existence of atom that takes complex shapes and combines in various shapes to form everything material in the surroundings. It is remarkable how the ideas of all these scientists as well as the modern day European scientists like Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton are similar.
Each and every one of these scientists endorses and enforce each other’s theories about the nature and existence of atomic particles. The early questioning made on the existence and nature of atomic particles and the studies of scientists were not based on laboratory-based experiments. Instead, these scientists were able to draw these conclusions based on the philosophical idea that was based in religion or in everyday science and understanding. In those times, the work of these scientists was not rendered to be more than just speculations and vague ideas about how they thought things worked. But it was later found that how remarkably correct they were after confirmation through modern day laboratory experimentation.
In the 19th century, it was John Dalton who concluded that each component in nature is actually made up of a simple and the same type of particle. Dalton’s most notable work that
concludes this is called stoichiometry and is viewed as a very respectable piece of work in the modern day physics. It was this time when this particle was named as an atom, and it was finally declared to be the fundamental particle for the existence of each and every physical component that exists.
Later in the 19th century, physicists and scientists found that the theory of Dalton about atoms was very convincing but not entirely true. It was realized that an atom is not the smallest particle that exists but is also composed of even smaller particles that constitute the atom. In the time between 1879 and 1897, through the work of William Crookes and Arthur Schuster, the electron was discovered, and it was declared as the smallest ever particle to have ever been discovered. In 1909, the charge of an electron that is negative in nature was measured very accurately and carefully by Robert Andrew Milikan and Harvey Fletcher (Particle Adventure, 2016).
In those times, protons were not discovered and hence electrons were recognized as the fundamental particle that existed in physics. It was also updated in the theory in the work of several physicists that electron constitutes atom and hence is a subatomic particle. Another study conducted in the field of radioactivity further weakened the claim of Dalton for the atom to be the fundamental particle as it was discovered that radioactive decay takes place. And for this to happen to an atom, there have to be constituents of the atom that lose their shape and state in the process of decay.
The physicists that came next built their theories on the existing stock of knowledge that was presented by the older scientists. In 1914, a series of experiments was carried out by Ernest
Rutherford and Gustav Hertz that resulted in the finding of a whole new image of the atomic structure. It was found that atom has a center that was named its nucleus that was surrounded by negatively charged electrons. These electrons were lower mass particles. The radioactive decay was then discussed and understood as a process that caused these particles to transmute. The decay was studied as the change that occurred in the charge or chemical property of the nucleus. The chemical properties of the atom were studied as the arrangement of these subatomic particles inside the atom (Das, 2011).
Later studies added to the stock of knowledge that there was no fundamental different between the particles of the atom and the waves that they produced. The experiment that illustrated light waves being made up of photons that were packets of energy further broadened the base of the claim that neither the subatomic particles nor their waves could further be divided. In the modern day, however, there have been formulated ways through which atoms can be split with the use of immense energy needed for the process.
The subject of nuclear fission studies the processing of atomic particles in a way that they are further simplified and a tremendous amount of energy is released as a result. Even ahead is the study of nuclear fusion that studies the processes of combining atomic particles together whilst going against their natural physical and chemical properties. This process if successfully completed has been found to release an enormous amount of energy, even more than the amount of energy produced in a fission reaction.
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