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Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937), was a New Zealand physicist who was a pioneering researcher in both atomic and nuclear physics. He has been described as "the father of nuclear physics", [ 7 ] and "the greatest experimentalist since Michael Faraday ". [ 8 ]
The Rutherford model was devised by Ernest Rutherford to describe an atom. Rutherford directed the Geiger–Marsden experiment in 1909, which suggested, upon Rutherford's 1911 analysis, that J. J. Thomson 's plum pudding model of the atom was incorrect.
[12] [13] Rutherford proposed a model of the atom in which a very small, dense and positively charged nucleus of protons was surrounded by orbiting, negatively charged electrons (the Rutherford model). [14] Niels Bohr improved upon this in 1913 by reconciling it with the quantum behaviour of electrons (the Bohr model). [15] [16] [17]
An electron which is stationary and completely free from the atom has an energy of 0 joules (or 0 electronvolts). An electron which is described as being at the "ground state" has a (negative) energy which is equal to the ionization energy of the atom. The electron will reside in this energy level under normal circumstances, unless the ground ...
Rutherford concluded that the alpha particles struck the nuclei of the nitrogen atoms, causing hydrogen ions to split off. [78] [79] These observations led Rutherford to conclude that the hydrogen nucleus was a singular particle with a positive charge equal to that of the electron's negative charge.
Rutherford stated, "...we must conclude that the nitrogen atom is disintegrated," while the newspapers stated he had split the atom. This was the first observation of a nuclear reaction, that is, a reaction in which particles from one decay are used to transform another atomic nucleus. It also offered a new way to study the nucleus.
That evening, Cockcroft and Walton met at Rutherford's home and produced a letter for Nature in which they announced their results, the first artificial disintegration of an atomic nucleus, which can be described thus: [18] [19] 7 3 Li + p → 2 4 2 He + 17.2 MeV. This feat was popularly known as splitting the atom. [19]
The term originated in 1903 when Ernest Rutherford began to speak of the possibility of atomic energy. [1] H. G. Wells popularized the phrase "splitting the atom", [citation needed] before discovery of the atomic nucleus. Atomic energy includes: Nuclear binding energy, the energy required to split a nucleus of an atom.