Challoner J The Atom The Building Block of Everything 2018

Textbook in PDF format

From a distance, matter looks smooth and continuous. A solid object, such as a table, has definite edges and no apparent gaps in its structure; water spills from a cup as self-contained fluid streams and droplets; and the air we breathe, although invisible, feels like one gassy continuum. But at a scale far too small for us to truly comprehend, matter is bumpy and discontinuous; it is made up of empty space punctuated by countless tiny particles. This notion—that matter is made of extremely small particles—is called atomism. This book is a celebration of atomism, and it sets out some of the remarkable insights an atomic perspective has revealed about the world around us.
Introduction
A brief history of the concept “atom”
Structure of the atom
Atomic identities
Atoms together
Seeing and manipulating atoms
Atomic applications
The end of atomism?