John Dalton and His Atomic Theory

John Dalton and His Atomic Theory <Tab/>John Dalton was a British chemist who discovered the first helpful atomic theory of matter. John Dalton discovered this theory in the year 1803 (Cain, 2001). John Dalton's atomic theory states all matter is made up of atoms which are indestructible and unchangeable, elements are characterized by the mass of their atoms, compounds are formed by a combination of two or more different kinds of atoms, …

…identical weights, when atoms of different elements have different weights. Dalton characterized elements according to their atomic weight, however this changed when isotopes of elements were discovered. <Tab/>Dalton's atomic theory changed chemistry for the whole world. Even though parts of his theory was later proven wrong and modern atomic theory is a little more involved than Dalton's theory, the aspect of Dalton's theory remains accurate. <Tab/>