Question

Why a model of the atom is crucial to understanding chemistry and in explaining the behavior of matter?

Answer 1

Models give us a visual idea of how to imaging the atoms/molecules/bonding, etc. The real understanding of atoms and how reactions take place is in advanced math, wave mechanics, etc. Many of us simply don't have the math background, especially in high school and lower level college work and it helps to have a model that we can visualize.

Answer 2

Thank you :)