Most of the experiments, like those here at Jefferson Lab, work by bouncing something thing off an atom, like an electron, and watching where the electron goes after it bounces out of the atom. Of course, an electron is smaller than an atom, so it would seem to get trickier. An electron is actually pretty easy to see since it leaves tracks in many things. Using those tracks, we can build a pretty nice picture of an atom. The story is typical in science and many human endeavors.
Someone comes up with an idea and then trys to prove it.
One could argue that Columbus' trip was an experiment to prove, or disprove his theory that India could be reached by sailing West from Europe. The end of our primitive story is that Og's son accidentily cut himself with the knife. Og caught him playing with the knife and grounded him for a week.