Ch. 2 | Structure of Atom0/15

Chapter 2

Ch. 2 | Structure of Atom

Same protons, neutrons, electrons — yet wildly different behaviour. The answer is always in the arrangement.

15lessons
19simulations
13worked examples
17checks
~128min

Your journey through this chapter

  1. 1

    Why Study the Structure of the Atom?

    Same protons, neutrons, electrons — yet wildly different behaviour. The answer is always in the arrangement.

    1 check
  2. 2

    Timeline of Atomic Models

    2,400 years of human curiosity — from Greek philosophy to quantum mechanics

    1 check
  3. 3

    Sub-Atomic Particles

    How scientists cracked open the atom and found electrons, protons, and neutrons inside

    1 sim1 check
  4. 4

    Thomson's Model of the Atom

    The first picture of the atom — elegant, simple, and completely wrong

    1 check
  5. 5

    Rutherford's Nuclear Model of the Atom

    One experiment that fired artillery shells at tissue paper — and changed physics forever

    3 sims1 check
  6. 6

    Atomic Number, Mass Number and Isotopes

    How Z, A, and n define every atom — and why isotopes of the same element are chemically identical

    1 sim1 check
  7. 7

    Wave Nature of Electromagnetic Radiation

    From Maxwell's unified theory to the full EM spectrum — and why waves diffract while particles don't

    2 sims3 examples1 check
  8. 8

    Planck's Quantum Theory and the Photoelectric Effect

    How four stubborn experiments broke classical physics — and why light delivers its energy in indivisible packets

    3 sims4 examples1 check
  9. 9

    Atomic Spectra and the Hydrogen Spectrum

    Why atoms emit only specific colours — the fingerprint that revealed quantised energy levels

    1 sim1 check
  10. 10

    Bohr's Model of the Atom

    From Rutherford's problem to quantum orbits — and why Bohr was right for all the wrong reasons

    1 sim1 check
  11. 11

    de Broglie's Hypothesis and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle

    Electrons are waves too — and you can never know exactly where they are

    2 sims5 examples1 check
  12. 12

    Quantum Mechanical Model and Quantum Numbers

    Orbitals, not orbits — and the four numbers that completely describe every electron

    2 sims1 check
  13. 13

    Shapes and Energies of Atomic Orbitals

    Spheres, dumbbells, and cloverleaves — the 3D shapes that govern all of chemistry

    2 sims1 check
  14. 14

    Filling of Orbitals and Electronic Configuration

    Aufbau, Pauli and Hund — how electrons fill an atom

    1 sim1 example2 checks
  15. 15

    Stability of Completely Filled and Half-Filled Subshells

    Why chromium and copper break the pattern

    2 checks
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