NDLI: Physical Construction of the Chemical Atom: Is it Convenient to Go All the Way Back?

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Izquierdo Aymerich, Mercè Adúriz Bravo, Agustín
Copyright Year	2008
Abstract	In this paper we present an analysis of chemistry texts (mainly textbooks) published during the first half of the 20th century. We show the evolution of the explanations therein in terms of atoms and of atomic structure, when scientists were interpreting phenomena as evidence of the discontinuous, corpuscular structure of matter. In this process of evidence construction, new contributions from physicists and physical chemists that were incorporated to chemical research acquired ‘chemical’ meaning, since they were related to research questions that genuinely came from chemistry. Conversely, the core ideas of 19th-century chemical atomism, among which we must highlight valence and Mendeleev’s periodic system, provided ‘clues’ for imagining an atom in terms of the elements adjusted to their chemical behaviour, which changed periodically as a function of atomic mass. With this, chemistry ceased to be a descriptive science and began to be a ‘law-based’, theoretical science. Little by little, chemistry teaching became the teaching of the internal structure of atoms, which were arranged in the Periodic Table according to criteria and ‘construction rules’ related to quantum mechanics. We pose the question: ‘how can we now teach general chemistry in a way that does not disregard current knowledge about the structure of the atom yet, at the same time, gives priority to chemical criteria, thus making such structure useful to interpret chemical change?’.
Starting Page	443
Ending Page	455
Page Count	13
File Format	PDF
ISSN	09267220
Journal	Science & Education
Volume Number	18
Issue Number	3-4
e-ISSN	15731901
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2009-02-21
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Interdisciplinary Studies History Philosophy of Science Science Education
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Education

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
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3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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