Question

For what reasons would modern scientists accept dalton's atomic theory but not the idea of an atom proposed by the greek philosophers?

Answer 1

Solution:

The idea of an atom proposed by the Greek philosophers because:

According to Greek Philosopher, matter is composed of small and indivisible particles called atoms. He introduced atoms as too small to be seen, unchangeable, completely solid without internal structure. He proposed that atoms are of variety of shapes and sizes which is responsible for different types of matter.

But according to Dalton’s atomic theory, chemical elements have atoms, which are identical in weight. The different elements have different atoms of different weight. Atoms can combine in whole-number ratios to form compounds. These observations are already introduced by Greek philosopher, but the idea of atomic weight is introduced by Dalton. He introduced the list of 21 elements with their atomic weights and, he was the first to propose the element’s symbol.