The Pedigree of Atom

A quick review on the historical aspect Discovery of the Atom in the graduate course Quantum Mechanics Script released by Ph.W. Courteille of Universidade de S?o Paulo, Instituto de F??sica de S?o Carlos on 14/06/2022.

This is a BIG WORK, 1326 pages in all, and there's no way to review it with justice in return for the free copy I have been browsing. I took interest mostly in their Chapter 20 and beyond developing the Physics that leads to the Cubit.

It has a lot of Physics and made me realise 20th and 21st Century Physics has been doing penance towards the chemists they poohooed for their bent towards 'phenomenology' in the centuries before. And now through this book; I notice that just about every quantum effect named after the next experimentalist is in the realm of Physical Phenomenology. And there's almost one per paragraph; almost!

So I decided to just focus on Chapter 2 - Discovery of the Atom and not plough through all the latter-day phenomenologists to review even Chapter 3 for example, on the Photon's Pedigree.

But before I delve into Chapter 2 I should say for the benefit of my fellow puzzled followers of the Quantum Computing narrative that Chapters 20 and beyond it concludes the QC with the same material my previous mini-review of the Infinite Napkin found and will not repeat that; except to indicate this one is Physics and not Mathematics, and you come away more or less thinking that you now know how to configure your own Cubit swizzling machine with optical gadgets filled with Bose-Einstein Condensates to trap audacious Schroedinger 'cats on steroids' they humorously name the Schwartzernegger Cat. There's even specs for some of the niffty gadgets you might need along that DIY way. On to Chapter 2.

Chapter 2 - the Discovery of the Atom chapter does a disservice to the sciences by attributing its discovery only to Rutherford circa 1911. What Rutherford established then was the atom's size and its shape with plenty space?between atoms and a tiny diameter Nucleus of over a thousand times its atomic density.

The Atom had been spoken of as noted in Chapter 2, since the times of Leucippus and Democritus some 500 years before. But the Atom was first indirectly verified by counter-example in its demonstrable gaseous absence in Torricelli's vacuum column circa 1643. Boyle circa 1662 quickly worked out how those volumes behaved with pressure. But alongside, one Becher circa 1667 came up with a 'Phlogiston' in the midst of those Atoms as the cause for burning and the rusting of iron.

That 'discovery' slowed down Atom's progress dramatically until Cavendish circa 1766, a stickler for measuring gases found a new 'inflammable air' after a hundred years of confounding phlogiston. Cavendish reformulated the behaviours of air thus inspiring, soon after - Lavoisier circa 1780 - to dispel Phlogiston with the irrefutable gaseous evidence he called 'Oxygen' and also replicating and naming Cavendish's gas 'Hydrogen'.

What Lavoisier verified was actually much more than an Atom. He identified one specific kind of Atom with specific behaviours we attribute to chemical Elements. Dalton circa 1803 followed two decades later to work out the relative weights and measures of differing gases eventually known as Atomic numbers, and the pace of discovery picked back up dramatically. His scale used Oxygen's partner in phlogiston crime 'Carbon' normalised to one, through dividing it by its own relative weight to match Hydrogen's atomic number.

Gay-Lussac circa 1808 worked out thermal behaviours, and eventually Avogadro circa 1811 nailed down how they behaved irrespective which chemical species. Helmoltz circa 1847 described the dynamic relation between the physical measurements. Stanislao Cannizzaro circa 1860 determined the Avogadro number empirically and its use eventually led to the concept of Ideal Gas by invocation of Newton's circa 1687's dynamic particle behaviours from a century before. This accelerated the pace even further, with Maxwell circa 1865 along with Gibbs circa 1869 the Thermodynamics, and Boltzmann circa 1877 their Entropy laws.

Through all this fury of discoveries, one Mendeleev circa 1869 managed to arrange Elements in sequence and by characteristic chemical properties in a scheme known as the Periodic Table which predicted at the time numerous yet to be discovered atomic elements.

All this time Physics was in strong denial of existence of the Atom. For instance Mach circa 1897, although better known for other discoveries was opposed to the idea of Atom. But Plank circa 1899 successfully deciphered Black Body radiation and vindicated Boltzmann in that debate by naming a constant in his formulation after him. The young Einstein circa 1905 switched loyalties from Mach's viewpoint to Planck's view of Boltzmann's Atom and in turn eventually honoured Planck in his electro-magnetic energy-mass relation.

So yes Rutherford delivered to Physics its Atom and detected its shape; But to me, Torricelli long established the Atom as a material species that may be evacuated from space.

But as to Atomic Element, its none other than Lavoisier who delivered to science evidence of its first Element 'oxygen' as chemical species which forever debunked spiritual Phlogiston.

You may seek for further detail on the above from my lazy time priority reference index below.

Torricelli circa 1643

Boyle circa 1662

Becher circa 1667

Newton circa 1687

Cavendish circa 1766

Lavoisier circa 1780

Dalton circa 1803

Gay-Lussac circa 1808

Avogadro circa 1811

Helmoltz circa 1847

Stanislao Cannizzaro circa 1860

Maxwell circa 1865

Mendeleev circa 1869

Gibbs circa 1873

Boltzmann circa 1877

Planck circa 1899

Mach circa 1897

Einstein circa 1905

Rutherford circa 1911