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lab4.1
How do we know that atoms exist? Images of the Atom Project 30 Points UPDATED 10/15/2008 Introduction All year we will be trying to answer a simple question: What is everything made out of? Right now, our best answer may be: everything is composed of matter. True, but it doesn’t tell us much. Another answer many be that all matter is composed of individual atoms. But…how do we know that is true? People have been asking themselves that question ever since Democritus popularized the idea 2400 years ago. We will be asking ourselves the same question this week: How do we know that atoms exist? To help answer this question we will take a look at how this question has been answered historically up to 1907, at which point most scientists believed the evidence was overwhelming. But most of you have indicated that the most convincing evidence for the existence of an atom would be to observe one. The goal of this project is to provide as much compelling visual evidence as you can that atoms do in fact exist. An important warning: Beware of doctored images on the web…anyone can create a fake image of an atom; we are looking for the real thing. A scoring rubric for this project is on the next page.
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