ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

John Dalton

John Dalton was a very smart man who lived a long time ago. He was a scientist who studied very small things called atoms. He looked at how atoms work and how they are different from each other.

He found out that atoms are like tiny little building blocks that make up everything in the world. They can't be broken down into anything smaller and they have different properties that make them unique.

Dalton came up with an idea called the "Atomic Theory." This theory said that all matter is made up of atoms and that atoms of the same element are exactly the same, while atoms of different elements are different from each other.

He also thought that atoms can combine to make molecules, and that chemical reactions happen when atoms are rearranged. This is kind of like when you play with blocks and stack them up to make a tower or build a house.

Dalton's ideas were really important because they helped other scientists understand more about how the world works. Even though he lived a long time ago, we still use his ideas to learn about atoms today.