[jennielynn_1980]

What does this phrase mean?  Does modern atomic theory refer to quantum theory?  Does it refer to Einstein and Plank's work?  And also Bohr?  The question I have to answer is how is Dalton's atomic theory similar and different from modern atomic theory.  I can answer the question if I knew exactly what modern atomic theory is.  There is no reference in my text or workbooks to exactly what it means and if I google it I come up with info on all these guys and their contributions to atomic theory.

Thanks:)

[Dan]

An overview

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0905226.html

Dalton's atomic theory

www.iun.edu/~cpanhd/C101webnotes/composition/dalton.html

Modern atomic theory

www.iun.edu/~cpanhd/C101webnotes/modern-atomic-theory/modern-atomic-theory.html

Personally, I don't think it is very meaningful to draw similarities and differences between the two - Dalton just picked up after the Greeks and set the ball rolling. It's not that his atomic theory is different from modern atomic theory or "wrong", just that it was not very in-depth by modern standards - incomplete. Modern atomic theory is, I suppose, everything since the discovery of the electron - basically atomic substructure (protons, neutrons, electrons, and all the even smaller bits that physicists like).

[jennielynn_1980]

Thanks for the links

As for it being useful to compare, I agree, it isn't really useful.  I think that it is hard to draw lines and say this is when it became modern atomic theory.  Also, I agree that Dalton wasn't "wrong."  He gave a great starting point to build from.  However, I still have to answer the question because it is part of the course material