These positively charged particles are called protons.Į/m varies with the nature of gas taken in the discharge tube. The charge to mass ratio ( e/m value) of positively charge particles was found to be maximum when the discharge tube was filled with hydrogen gas as hydrogen is the lightest element. These anode rays (canal rays) consisted of positively charged particles formed by ionization of gas molecules by the cathode rays. On passing high voltage between the electrodes of a discharge tube it was found that some rays were coming from the side of the anode which passed through the holes in the cathode. This was confirmed by Goldstein in his discharge tube experiment with perforated cathode.

We know that an atom is electrically neutral, if it contains negatively charged electrons it must also contain some positively charged particles. The e/m ratio for cathode rays is fixed whose values is 1.76 × 108 C/g

Thomson, as a result of experimental work on the conduction of electricity through gases at low pressures and high voltage, which produces cathode rays consisting of negatively charged particles, named as electrons. The existence of electrons in atoms was first suggested, by J.J. We shall now take up the brief study of these fundamental particles. At present about 35 different subatomic particles are known but the three particles namely electron, proton and neutron are regarded as the fundamental particles. However, the researches done by various eminent scientists and the discovery of radioactivity have established beyond doubt, that atom is not the smallest indivisible particle but had a complex structure of its own and was made up of still smaller particles like electrons, protons, neutrons etc. This means that a chemical reaction is just a simple rearrangement of atoms and the same number of atoms must be present before and after the reaction.Ītom is the smallest particle of an element which takes part in a chemical reaction.Ītoms of the same element are identical in all respects especially, size, shape and mass.Ītoms of different elements have different mass, shape and size.Ītoms of different elements combine in a fixed ratio of small whole numbers to form compound atoms, called molecules. Matter is made up of small indivisible particles, called atoms.Ītoms can neither be created nor destroyed. The main postulates of Dalton’s atomic theory are This concept was accepted for number of years. (In Greek atom means which cannot be cut). Matter is any substance which occupies space and has mass.ĭalton, in 1808, proposed that matter was made up of extremely small, indivisible particles called atoms. All the objects around you, this book, your pen or pencil and things of nature such as rocks, water and plant constitute the matter of the universe.

Dalton atomic theory