Exploring Atoms: Fact or Fiction?

[ShadowChaotic]

I'm doing an assignment for grade 8 science in which I have to prove whether or not atoms are fact or fiction. I was just wondering if anyone would be able to give me a few tips to help me out with this.

 

[HallsofIvy]

First, atoms are fact! I'm not sure what kind of "proof" would be appropriate to an eighth grade paper but you might want to look at "Brownian Motion". I went to google.com, entered "Brownian Motion" and got a number of links, including this one:
http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/109N/more_stuff/Applets/brownian/brownian.html

It was Albert Einstein's (heard of him?!) 1905 paper on Brownian Motion that gave the first convincing proof of the existence of atoms.

 

[OlderDan]

I'm doing an assignment for grade 8 science in which I have to prove whether or not atoms are fact or fiction. I was just wondering if anyone would be able to give me a few tips to help me out with this.

In addition to the previous recommendation, you might also want to look up the Rutherford scattering experiment. This experiment not only confirmed the existence of atoms (which was already generally accepted), it confirmed that atoms have the internal structure of a heavy positively charged nucleus concentrated in a small volume compared to the size of an atom.

There is a nice lttle simulation of the experiment here

http://www.waowen.screaming.net/revision/nuclear/rsanim.htm

You can adjust the starting position of the alpha particle projectile (click and drag) before firing, and see the tracks created as it is scattered by the nucleus. You can also adjust the energy of the particle, which changes its speed.

 

[ArielGenesis]

A very interesting project.

I thought what your teacher wants is a statement who prove the atom existence and how. The above resources is useful.

 

[Danger]

Nice links, guys! Here's one more, just as a starting point on the subject of http://stm2.nrl.navy.mil/how-afm/how-afm.html , which not only provides images of atoms, but wouldn't even be possible if they didn't exist. There are other sites that offer varying levels of explanation and pictures.

 

[ShadowChaotic]

thanks

thanks guys, that helps a lot!