Learning Essentials

What is the Big Bang Theory?

The Big Bang theory is an effort to explain what happened at the very beginning of our universe.

According to the standard theory, our universe sprang into existence as "singularity" around 13.7 billion
years ago.

Singularities are zones which defy our current understanding of physics. They are thought to exist at the
core of "black holes."

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These zones of infinite density are called "singularities." Our universe is thought to have begun as an
infinitesimally small, infinitely hot, infinitely dense, something - a singularity.

After its initial appearance, it apparently inflated (the "Big Bang"), expanded and cooled, going from
very, very small and very, very hot, to the size and temperature of our current universe.

It continues to expand and cool to this day and we are inside of it: incredible creatures living on a
unique planet, circling a beautiful star clustered together with several hundred billion other stars in a
galaxy soaring through the cosmos, all of which is inside of an expanding universe that began as an
infinitesimal singularity which appeared out of nowhere for reasons unknown.

This is the Big Bang theory.

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Evidence for the Big Bang

Astronomers think that the Universe started with the Big Bang. As with all science, this is based on
evidence; so what is the evidence for the Big Bang theory?

1. Redshift of Galaxies

The redshift of distant galaxies means that the Universe is probably expanding. If we then go back far
enough in time, everything must have been squashed together into a tiny dot. The rapid eruption from
this tiny dot was the Big Bang.

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2. Microwave Background

Very early in its history, the whole Universe was very hot. As it expanded, this heat left behind a "glow"
that fills the entire Universe. The Big Bang theory not only predicts that this glow should exist, but that it
should be visible as microwaves - part of the Electromagnetic Spectrum.

This is the Cosmic Microwave Background which has been accurately measured by orbiting detectors,
and is very good evidence that the Big Bang theory is correct.

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3. Mixture of Elements
As the Universe expanded and cooled down, some of the elements that we see today were created. The
Big Bang theory predicts how much of each element should have been made in the early universe, and
what we see in very distant galaxies and old stars is just right.

You cannot look in new stars, like the Sun, for this evidence, because they contain elements that were
created in previous generations of stars. As such, the composition of new stars will be very different
from the composition of stars that existed 7 billion years ago, shortly after the Big Bang.

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4. Looking back in time

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The main alternative to the Big Bang theory of the Universe is called the Steady State theory. In this
theory, the Universe does not change very much with time.

Remember that because light takes a long time to travel across the Universe, when we look at very
distant galaxies, we are also looking back in time.

From this we can see that galaxies a long time ago were quite different from those today, showing that
the Universe has changed. This fits better with the Big Bang theory than the Steady State theory.

What is Big Bang Nucleosynthesis?

As the universe cools, the matter content changes - new particles are formed out of the preexisting
ones, such as protons and neutrons forming out of quarks. From about one second to a few minutes
cosmic time, when the temperature has fallen below 10 billion Kelvin, the conditions are just right for
protons and neutrons to combine and form certain species of atomic nuclei. This phase is called Big Bang
Nucleosynthesis.
While the early universe is totally unlike our everyday world, the basic nuclear physics at the
appropriate energies is well within the range of laboratory experiments.

Following such experiments, the properties of the relevant nuclear reactions are very well known.

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Physicists can base their calculations on solid experimental data when they want to describe reactions
like the one pictured here:

The image illustrates two of the nuclear reactions occurring during Big Bang Nucleosynthesis:

It shows protons and neutrons combining to form deuterium nuclei (D, containing one proton and one
neutron), accompanied by the emission of high energy photons (denoted as γ); furthermore, it shows
two deuterium nuclei fusing to produce one nucleus of helium-3 (with two protons and one neutrons)
and one free neutron.

Taking into account a wealth of nuclear reactions similar to the ones pictured above, one can then apply
general statistical formula which govern the relative abundances of the different matter constituents.

What nuclei are produced, and in what amounts, is the result of a race between the various nuclear
reactions on the one hand and the inevitable cooling that accompanies the expansion of the universe on
the other.

As it turns out, Big Bang Nucleosynthesis strongly favors the very light elements like hydrogen and
helium - not only standard hydrogen (one proton) and helium-4 (two neutrons and two protons), but
also the isotopes deuterium (one proton, one neutron), tritium (one proton, two neutrons) and helium-3
(two protons, one neutron). By mass, about a quarter of the nuclei in the universe should be helium-4.
Deuterium, tritium, helium-3 and lithium-7 nuclei should occur in much smaller, but still measurable
quantities.

How are light and heavy elements formed?

Nuclear fusion in stars converts hydrogen into helium in all stars. In stars less massive than the Sun, this
is the only reaction that takes place. In stars more massive than the Sun (but less massive than about 8
solar masses), further reactions that convert helium to carbon and oxygen take place in successive
stages of stellar evolution. In the very massive stars, the reaction chain continues to produce elements
like silicon up to iron.

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The universe continuously expanded for several years and the cloud of hydrogen and helium gases
condensed to form stars, including the sun. Over million of years, the stars made of hydrogen become
more hotter and denser.

During this Stellar evolution, nuclear reactions continued, which produced elements heavier than
lithium.

The light elements combined to form atoms of carbon, neon, oxygen, silicon, and iron.
Starting from a small, young, yellow star, successive nuclear reactions occurred until it became a giant
red star. The reactions involved in the formation of each new element happened in regions or layers so
called fusion shells.

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As more elements were produced, new layers added up to the size of the star until it became a red
giant. Stars are describe to have an “ onion skin structure” as they evolved and produced new elements.

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How do other elements were produced due to nuclear fusion?

Younger yellow star made up of hydrogen were fueled by the energy released from the fusion of
hydrogen nuclei to form helium.

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The carbon nuclei produced became more concentrated at the center of the star, as helium was earlier.
This produced a carbon core, then when it reached a certain temperature to allow carbon fusion, it
produced neon within the carbon fusion shell. Nuclear reactions that occurred in this shell include the
following:

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More nuclear fusions happened between different nuclei to form the other elements . However, the
production of elements stopped when iron was formed. Since iron is the most stable nuclei, it cannot
undergo nuclear fusion.

In all of the previous reactions, a great amount of energy is produced, enough to fuel more nuclear
reactions. However, in order to produce elements heavier than iron, energy input is necessary. At this
point, the star has already exhausted its nuclear fuel.

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How elements heavier than iron were formed?

As the red giant star exhausted the nuclear fuel of light elements, its core started to collapse that
eventually led to the explosion of the star. This violent explosion called supernova released a huge
amount of nuclear energy and produced, through neutron capture and radioactive decay, other
elements heavier than iron .

Neutron capture reactions were either as fast as a fraction of a second or as slow as a few million
years. The processes occurred as a seed nucleus captured neutrons, forming a heavier isotopes of the
element that was either stable or radioactive.

Stable isotopes continued to capture neutrons and formed other heavier isotopes of the seed
nuclei.

Unstable or radioactive isotopes, however, underwent beta decay, producing an isotope of a new
element.
 For seed nuclei with relatively few neutrons ( from iron to bismuth ), neutron capture occurred so
slowly that beta decay of the product isotope happened before it captured another neutron.

This is now referred to as the slow process or s-process.

An example of this process is the formation of copper(Cu) and zinc(Zn) nuclei from a nickel (Ni) nucleus.

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However, some series of neutron capture occurred very fast that seed nucleus turned into a relatively
heavier nucleus before beta decay took place. Such process is referred to as the rapid process or r-
process, which is exemplified in the formation of cobalt (Co) from iron (Fe).

Different isotopes and much heavier elements were formed during the neutron capture-and-decay
processes. All these elements, along with the fragments of the star during supernova, were released into
the vast space and gradually condensed to form the different planets like Earth, new stars, and other
heavenly bodies

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What are the ideas of ancient Greeks on the atom?

Around 440 B.C. Empedocles suggested that there were four elements: Water, Earth, Air, and Fire. It
seemed logical because when things caught fire, moisture is released, air can be felt coming up from it,
and the ashes show the earth that it contained. Classifying all matter as only being made of four
elements certainly simplified our view of the world.
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Around 400 B.C. another Greek philosopher, Democritus, agreed there were four elements but he
proposed that there was a limit to how small an element could be divided.

For example, he said matter may look smooth and solid, but if we could see it very, very close, then we
would see that it's made of pieces. An analogy is a beach looks smooth from a distance, but up close we
know it's made up of grains of sand.

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Again, he proposed that elements were composed of very small pieces that could no not be divided any
further. He called these pieces Atoms after the Greek word for “Indivisible”.

Democritus was quite perceptive. In a manner similar to atoms, he proposed that the Milky Way was not
milk nor clouds but a collection of millions of stars that individually are too small to see but all together
they look like a cloud or liquid.

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It is quite amazing that he saw this pattern at both the large scale of a galaxy and the small scale of
atoms. The pattern is that we think we see something smooth, but that's only because of the limitation
of our vision or touch. On closer inspection, there's always individual pieces, not something continuous.

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The image below is what Democritus thought atoms might look like. He believed that atoms of the
different elements may have different shapes. That could account for the different look and behavior of
the elements.

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Around 340 B.C. Aristotle did not believe in the atomic theory and he taught so otherwise. He thought
that all materials on Earth were not made of atoms, but of the four elements, Earth, Fire, Water, and Air.
He believed all substances were made of small amounts of these four elements of matter. Most people
followed Aristotle’s idea, causing Democritus’ idea- which was that all substances on Earth where made
of small particles called atoms- to be over looked for about 2,000 years!

According to Aristotle the fifth element is aether or ether, also called quintessence, is the material that
fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere.

The concept of aether was used in several theories to explain several natural phenomena, such as the
traveling of light and gravity.

What are the ideas of ancient Greeks on the element?

The ancient Greeks believed that there were four elements that everything was made up of: earth,
water, air, and fire.

This theory was suggested around 450 BC, and it was later supported and added to by Aristotle.
(Aristotle also suggested that there was a fifth element, aether, because it seemed strange that the stars
would be made out of earthly elements. He would be surprised to learn that they are in fact made up of
many elements found on earth, and are so hot they could be said to be on fire all the time!)

The idea that these four elements - earth, water, air, and fire - made up all matter was the cornerstone
of philosophy, science, and medicine for two thousand years. The elements were "pure" but could not
be found in that state on earth. Every visible thing was made up of some combination of earth, water,
air, and fire.

The four elements were even used to described the four temperaments a person could have, and
Hippocrates used the four elements to describe the four "humors" found in the body. These theories
stated that the temperaments and humors needed to be in balance with each other in order for a
person to be well both mentally and physically.
In a way the four elements do align with the four states of matter that modern science has agreed on:
solid (earth), liquid (water), gas (air), and plasma (fire).

Although the Greeks believed that the four elements were unchanging in nature, everything was made
up of different elements, which were held together or pushed apart by forces of attraction and
repulsion, causing substances to appear to change. This is similar to what really happens with elements
and all molecules at an atomic level.

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Zosimus ca. 250 AD

Zosimus was an Egyptian born Greek alchemist who believed that all substances are composed of the
four elements of nature - Fire, Water, Air and Earth.

He collected together all the knowledge on khemia, as it was then known, and compiled a 28 volume
encylopedia.

It is thanks to Zosimus that we know what we do about Egyptian/Greek alchemy. Much of the
knowledge was destroyed by the Roman emperor Diocletian and Christians who burned the library in
Alexandria in 391.

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Geber full name: Abu Musa Jabir Ibn Hayyan ca. 721 - 815 AD
Geber, as he was known by the Europeans, was an Arabian alchemist who lived in what we now know as
Iraq.

He distilled strong acetic acid from vinegar and believed that metals are made up of mercury and sulfur
in varying proportions. He also popularized the idea of the Philosopher's Stone which would combine
the mercury and sulfur to make gold.

Geber is responsible for giving us the word 'gibberish', derived from his name!

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Albertus Magnus ca. 1200 - 1280 AD

Albertus Magnus, (which means Albert the Great) was a German monk and practicing alchemist.

Magnus closely followed the works of Aristotle, giving his philosophy prominence in the Middle Ages.

He was the first to escribe arsenic in its pure form and Thomas Aquinas, who was later to become,
among other things, a famous alchemist, was one of his students.

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Paracelsus full name: Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim 1493 - 1541 AD

The Swiss born Paracelsus took his name meaning 'better than Celsus', Celsus being a renowned Roman
scholar of medicine.
He invented the word alcohol from the Arabic 'al-kohl', and his own branch of alchemy called 'spagyric
alchemy'.

Paracelsus strongly believed in spiritual alchemy and that the purpose of alchemy was not to transmute
metals, but to cure disease.

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Isaac Newton 1642 - 1727 AD

One of the last well known alchemists was the English scientist Isaac Newton.

In addition to studying more legitimate sciences such as physics and math, Newton spent much of his
time on alchemy. Indeed it has been said that Newton was not the "first of the age of reason but that he
was the last of the magicians."

In rediscovered documents deemed unfit to be printed by the Royal Society, it is clear that the
inspiration for his work on light and gravity came from his obsession with alchemy. It is even suggested
that Newton succeeded in transmuting lead to gold

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What is an atom?
An atom is the smallest constituent unit of ordinary matter that has the properties of a chemical
element. Every solid, liquid, gas, and plasma is composed of neutral or ionized atoms. Atoms are very
small; typical sizes are around 100 picometers (a ten-billionth of a meter, in the short scale).

Atoms are small enough that attempting to predict their behavior using classical physics – as if they
were billiard balls, for example – gives noticeably incorrect predictions due to quantum effects. Through
the development of physics, atomic models have incorporated quantum principles to better explain and
predict the behavior.

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What is the structure of the atom and its subatomic particles?

Subatomic particles are particles that are smaller than the atom.

Atoms are the basic units of matter and the defining structure of elements. Atoms are made up of three
subatomic particles: protons, neutrons and electrons.

Protons and neutrons are heavier than electrons and reside in the center of the atom, which is called
the nucleus. Electrons are extremely lightweight and exist in a cloud orbiting the nucleus. The electron
cloud has a radius 10,000 times greater than the nucleus.

Protons and neutrons have approximately the same mass. However, one proton weighs more than
1,800 electrons. Atoms always have an equal number of protons and electrons, and the number of
protons and neutrons is usually the same as well. Adding a proton to an atom makes a new element,
while adding a neutron makes an isotope, or heavier version, of that atom.

Nucleus
The nucleus was discovered in 1911, but its parts were not identified until 1932. Virtually all the mass of
the atom resides in the nucleus. The nucleus is held together by the "strong force," one of the four basic
forces in nature. This force between the protons and neutrons overcomes the repulsive electrical force
that would, according to the rules of electricity, push the protons apart otherwise.

Protons

Protons are positively charged particles found within atomic nuclei. They were discovered by Ernest
Rutherford in experiments conducted between 1911 and 1919.

The number of protons in an atom defines what element it is. For example, carbon atoms have six
protons, hydrogen atoms have one and oxygen atoms have eight. The number of protons in an atom is
referred to as the atomic number of that element. The number of protons in an atom also determines
the chemical behavior of the element. The Periodic Table of the Elements arranges elements in order of
increasing atomic number.

Protons are made of other particles called quarks. There are three quarks in each proton — two "up"
quarks and one "down" quark — and they are held together by other particles called gluons.

Electrons

Electrons have a negative charge and are electrically attracted to the positively charged protons.
Electrons surround the atomic nucleus in pathways called orbitals. The inner orbitals surrounding the
atom are spherical but the outer orbitals are much more complicated.

An atom's electron configuration is the orbital description of the locations of the electrons in an
unexcited atom. Using the electron configuration and principles of physics, chemists can predict an
atom's properties, such as stability, boiling point and conductivity.
Typically, only the outermost electron shells matter in chemistry. The inner electron shell notation is
often truncated by replacing the long-hand orbital description with the symbol for a noble gas in
brackets. This method of notation vastly simplifies the description for large molecules.

For example, the electron configuration for beryllium (Be) is 1s22s2, but it's is written [He]2s2. [He] is
equivalent to all the electron orbitals in a helium atom. The Letters, s, p, d, and f designate the shape of
the orbitals and the superscript gives the number of electrons in that orbital.

Neutrons

Neutrons are uncharged particles found within atomic nuclei. A neutron's mass is slightly larger than
that of a proton. Like protons, neutrons are also made of quarks — one "up" quark and two "down"
quarks. Neutrons were discovered by James Chadwick in 1932.

Isotopes

The number of neutrons in a nucleus determines the isotope of that element. For example, hydrogen
has three known isotopes: protium, deuterium and tritium. Protium, symbolized as 1H, is just ordinary
hydrogen; it has one proton and one electron and no neutrons. Deuterium (D or 2H) has one proton,
one electron and one neutron. Tritium (T or 3H) has one proton, one electron and two neutrons.

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J.J. Thomson

At the end of the nineteenth century, a scientist called J.J. Thomson discovered the electron. This is a
tiny negatively charged particle that is much, much smaller than any atom. When he discovered the
electron, Thomson was experimenting by applying high voltages to gases at low pressure. He noticed an
interesting effect.

Thomson did experiments on the beams of particles in his tube. They were attracted to a positive
charge, so Thomson correctly concluded that they must be negatively charged themselves. Other
experiments showed that it would take about 2000 electrons to weigh the same as the lightest atom,
hydrogen. He called the tiny, negatively charged particles electrons.

Thomson proposed a different model for the atom. He said that the tiny negatively charged electrons
must be embedded in a cloud of positive charge (after all, atoms themselves carry no overall charge, so
the charges must balance out). Thomson imagined the electrons as the bits of plum in a plum pudding
(rather like currants spread through a Christmas pudding – but with lots more space in between).

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Ernest Rutherford

The next development came about 10 years later. Two of Ernest Rutherford's students, Hans Geiger and
Ernest Marsden, were doing an experiment at Manchester University with radiation. They were using
the dense, positively charged particles (called alpha particles) as 'bullets' to fire at a very thin piece of
gold foil. They expected the particles to barge their way straight through the gold atoms unimpeded by
the diffuse positive charge spread throughout the atom that Thomson's model described.

In 1911, Ernest Rutherford interpreted these results and suggested a new model for the atom. He said
that Thomson's model could not be right. The positive charge must be concentrated in a tiny volume at
the center of the atom, otherwise the heavy alpha particles fired at the foil could never be repelled back
towards their source. On this model, the electrons orbited around the dense nucleus (centre of the
atom).

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Niels Bohr

The next important development came in 1914 when Danish physicist Niels Bohr revised the model
again. It had been known for some time that the light given out when atoms were heated always had
specific amounts of energy, but no one had been able to explain this. Bohr suggested that the electrons
must be orbiting the nucleus in certain fixed energy levels (or shells). The energy must be given out
when 'excited' electrons fall from a high energy level to a low one.

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Henry Moseley

In 1914, Henry Moseley used x-ray tubes to determine the charges on the nuclei of most atoms. He
wrote "The atomic number of an element is equal to the number of protons in the nucleus". This work
was used to reorganize the periodic table based upon atomic number instead of atomic mass.

X-Ray Spectrometer

A tool used by Henry Moseley in his research was the X-Ray Spectrometer. It allowed him to detect
certain wave lengths that were being given off by different elements which lead to determine the
amount of positive charges in a nucleus. These wave lengths were used to define an element's order,
giving its atomic number.

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What is Atomic Number?

The discovery of the subatomic particles prompted other scientists to study the variations in the
characteristics of elements. English physicist Henry Moseley experimentally found that different metals
bombarded with electrons produced varying frequencies of X-rays.
He attributed these results to the differences in the positive charge in the nucleus of the elements. He
correlated the frequencies to whole numbers, which he assigned to each element- the atomic number.

What is the use of Atomic Number?

The atomic number serves as the identity of an atom. The atomic number refers to the number of
protons in the nucleus of each atom of an element.

In a neutral atom, the number of protons is equal to the number of electrons. Therefore, the atomic
number also indicates the number of electrons in a neutral atom.

For example, the atomic number of Helium is 2. This means that each neutral carbon atom has 2 protons
and 2 electrons.

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What is Atomic Mass?

The atomic mass, given the symbol A, is the total number of neutrons and protons present in the
nucleus of an atom of an element. All atomic nuclei contain both protons and neutrons. An exception to
this is hydrogen, which has one proton but no neutron.

Atomic mass = number of protons + number of neutrons

For example, the atomic mass of Helium is 4. This means that each neutral carbon atom has 2 protons
and 2 neutrons.
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How to represent the atomic number and atomic mass?

The most acceptable way to represent the atomic number ( Z ) and atomic mass ( A ) of an atom of a
hypothetical element X is shown below

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What is Isotopes?

In most cases, the atoms of given element do not have the same mass.

Isotopes are atoms with the same atomic number but different atomic mass.

As an example, hydrogen has protium, deuterium, and tritium as its isotopes.

Protium can be written as hydrogen-1

Deuterium can be written as hydrogen-2

Tritium can be written as hydrogen-3.

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What are the nuclear reactions involved in the synthesis of new elements?

You specifically asked about new “elements” rather than new “isotopes”. The element is defined by its
atomic number Z which is the number of protons in the nucleus.
To synthesize a new element, you need to change the number of protons. This may be accomplished in
several ways:

Fissioning a large nucleus into smaller parts. For example, a U235 nucleus can be split by hitting it with a
slow neutron. This usually causes the nucleus to break into about 4 or 5 pieces. Usually a largish piece
like Xenon-135 and a smaller piece like Rubidium-98 and typically 2 or 3 neutrons also result.

If you start with a nucleus that has too many neutrons, it typically spontaneously emits an electron
converting one neutron into a proton. This is called a beta emission and it increases Z by one.

For example, that Rubidium-98 might change into a Strontium-98 and then a Yttrium-98. Lots of these
excess neutron isotopes are formed by fission in nuclear reactors.

If you start with a nucleus that has too many protons, it typically spontaneously emits a helium-4
nucleus which is 2 protons and 2 neutrons. This is called an alpha emission and it decreases Z by two
while also decreasing the atomic weight by four. This is how natural Uranium-238 and Thorium-232
decay.

You can also bombard target materials with high energy photons (gamma rays), protons, neutrons,
alpha particles, deuterium, tritium, neon, etc. These can disrupt the nucleus in ways that change the
atomic number. With these methods, it is very difficult to make macroscopic quantities of new material.

But this is how the very large synthetic elements like Mendelevium are formed. A few atoms of
Mendelevium have been created by smashing alpha particles into Einsteinium which was itself formed
by neutron bombardment in a high power nuclear reactor.

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Although the concept of the atom dates back to the ideas of Democritus, the English meteorologist and
chemist John Dalton formulated the first modern description of it as the fundamental building block of
chemical structures.

Dalton proposed that each chemical element is composed of atoms of a single, unique type, and though
they cannot be altered or destroyed by chemical means, they can combine to form more complex
structures (chemical compounds).

Since Dalton reached his conclusions by experimentation and examination of the results in an empirical
fashion, this marked the first truly scientific theory of the atom.

Dalton's Atomic Theory

The main points of Dalton's atomic theory are:

Everything is composed of atoms, which are the indivisible building blocks of matter and cannot be
destroyed.

All atoms of an element are identical.

The atoms of different elements vary in size and mass.

Compounds are produced through different whole-number combinations of atoms.

A chemical reaction results in the rearrangement of atoms in the reactant and product com

When atoms combine in only one ratio, "..it must be presumed to be a binary one, unless some cause
appear to the contrary".

For elements that combined in multiple ratios, their combinations were assumed to be the simplest
ones possible. Two combinations resulted in a binary and a ternary compound.
This was merely an assumption, derived from faith in the simplicity of nature. No evidence was then
available to scientists to deduce how many atoms of each element combine to form compound
molecules.

But this or some other such rule was absolutely necessary to any incipient theory, since one needed an
assumed molecular formula in order to calculate relative atomic weights. In any case, Dalton's "rule of
greatest simplicity" caused him to assume that the formula for water was OH and ammonia was NH,
quite different from our modern understanding (H2O, NH3).

Despite the uncertainty at the heart of Dalton's atomic theory, the principles of the theory survived. To
be sure, the conviction that atoms cannot be subdivided, created, or destroyed into smaller particles
when they are combined, separated, or rearranged in chemical reactions is inconsistent with the
existence of nuclear fusion and nuclear fission, but such processes are nuclear reactions and not
chemical reactions.

In addition, the idea that all atoms of a given element are identical in their physical and chemical
properties is not precisely true, as we now know that different isotopes of an element have slightly
varying weights.

However, Dalton had created a theory of immense power and importance. Indeed, Dalton's innovation
was fully as important for the future of the science as Antoine Laurent Lavoisier's oxygen-based
chemistry had been.

Experiments on Atomic Weights and Structures

Atomic weights

Dalton proceeded to print his first published table of relative atomic weights. Six elements appear in this
table, namely hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, sulfur, and phosphorus, with the atom of hydrogen
conventionally assumed to weigh 1.
Dalton provided no indication in this first paper how he had arrived at these numbers. However, in his
laboratory notebook under the date 6 September 1803 there appears a list in which he sets out the
relative weights of the atoms of a number of elements, derived from analysis of water, ammonia,
carbon dioxide, etc. by chemists of the time.

It appears, then, that confronted with the problem of calculating the relative diameter of the atoms of
which, he was convinced, all gases were made, he used the results of chemical analysis.

Assisted by the assumption that combination always takes place in the simplest possible way, he thus
arrived at the idea that chemical combination takes place between particles of different weights, and it
was this which differentiated his theory from the historic speculations of the Greeks, such as Democritus
and Lucretius.

The extension of this idea to substances in general necessarily led him to the law of multiple
proportions, and the comparison with experiment brilliantly confirmed his deduction.

It may be noted that in the paper "On the Proportion of the Several Gases in the Atmosphere", read by
him in November 1802, the law of multiple proportions appears to be anticipated in the words: "The
elements of oxygen may combine with a certain portion of nitrous gas or with twice that portion, but
with no intermediate quantity", but there is reason to suspect that this sentence may have been added
some time after the reading of the paper, which was not published until 1805.

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Compounds were listed as binary, ternary, quaternary, etc. (molecules composed of two, three, four,
etc. atoms) in the New System of Chemical Philosophy depending on the number of atoms a compound
had in its simplest, empirical form/

He hypothesized the structure of compounds can be represented in whole number ratios.

So, one atom of element X combining with one atom of element Y is a binary compound. Furthermore,
one atom of element X combining with two elements of Y or vice versa, is a ternary compound.
Many of the first compounds listed in the New System of Chemical Philosophy correspond to modern
views, although many others do not.

Various atoms and molecules as depicted in John Dalton's A New System of Chemical Philosophy (1808).

Dalton used his own symbols to visually represent the atomic structure of compounds. These were
depicted in the New System of Chemical Philosophy, where Dalton listed twenty elements and
seventeen simple molecules.

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