Many of today’s advancements correlate with scientific history. Dalton’s atomic theory, even though it is 200 years old, is still accurate in modern day. It consist of the idea that “all matter is made of atoms,” which are “indivisible and indestructible” and there are compounds which “are formed by a combination of two or more different kinds of atoms,” as stated by Dalton. However, evidence proves that with the help of many scientist, such as Henri Becquerel and the Curie family, this theory was proved valid.
The discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel was one contribution to the atomic theory. The atomic theory and the discovery of radioactivity correlate with each other because when the nuclei of an atom breaks down, which causes the release of these high energy particles, it is called radioactivity. Becquerel would expose a crystal, that obtained uranium, to sunlight. After a while the crystal absorbed some sunlight, which he later placed in a photographic plate. While
…show more content…
The Curies and Becquerel were awarded a Nobel prize in physics for the discoveries and research made. On the other hand, Mrs. Curie was influenced, to an extent, by the discovery of radioactivity and x-rays that she went ahead and decided to experiment her own ideas. She used an electrometer, that her husband and brother had developed, to discover that “uranium rays were what caused the air around the sample to create electricity,” stated by Mrs. Curie. Her first result was “the finding that the activity of the uranium compounds depended only on the quantity of uranium present,” stated Mrs. Curie. She later hypothesized that the interaction between molecules was not only coming from radiation but from the atom itself. This relates with the atomic theory because Mrs. Curie’s hypothesis was used to falsify the speculation that atoms were