Ernest Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford  1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson and Cambridge (1871-1937), British physicist, who became a Nobel laureate for his pioneering work in nuclear physics and for his theory of the structure of the atom. Rutherford was born on August 30, 1871, in Nelson, New Zealand, and was educated at the University of New Zealand and the University of Cambridge. Rutherford was one of the first and most important researchers in nuclear physics. Soon after the discovery of radioactivity in 1896 by the French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel, Rutherford identified the three main components of radiation and named them alpha, beta, and gamma rays. He also showed that alpha particles are helium nuclei. His study of radiation led to his formulation of a theory of atomic structure, which was the first to describe the atom as a dense nucleus which electrons circle. In 1919 Rutherford conducted an important experiment in nuclear physics when he bombarded nitrogen gas with alpha particles and obtained atoms of an isotope of oxygen and protons. This transmutation of nitrogen into oxygen was the first artificially induced nuclear reaction. He was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, was knighted in 1914, and was made a baron in 1931. He died in London on October 19, 1937, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
http://library.thinkquest.org/13822/RUTHERFO/ruther.html

Nobelprize Chemistry 1908: Ernest Rutherford
"for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances"
http://www.nobel.se/laureates/chemistry-1908.html

Ernest Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford was born at Bridgewater, close to Nelson, New Zealand. His parents had emigrated to New Zealand from Britain approximately 30 years earlier. At the age of 28 Rutherford took up the position of professor at the University of McGill in Montreal, Canada, carrying out research into radioactivity. The some of the most important work was in the identification of the alpha, beta and gamma radiation. In 1902, with the collaboration of Frederick Soddy, he enunciated and verified the 'spontaneous transformation' theory of radioactive decay, whereby a radioactive atom changes to a different atom on the emission of radiation.
Rutherford received the Noble prize in Chemistry for his work in radioactivity in 1908. With the help of 15 research students, Rutherford was carrying out research on the nature of alpha particles. This research led him to believe that alpha particles were in fact Helium atoms. In 1908 Rutherford peformed a simple experiment involving the radioactive gas radon which decays by emitting alpha particles. The gas was placed within a glass container which also contained an evacuated glass tube containing electrodes at each end (similar to a fluorescent tube). The apparatus was left for a few days after which a high voltage was applied across the two electrodes, the resulting electric discharge was analysed with the emission spectrum the same as that produced by the electric discharge from Helium gas. The alpha particles had travelled through the glass walls of the evacuated tube to collect as Helium gas.
In 1911 Rutherford announced his most revolutionary idea on the nature of the atom. Rutherford proposed that the atom was constructed with a small densely packed positive nucleus with orbiting electrons - the solar system model. In 1912 Niels Bohr joined with Rutherford and published his theories on the nature of the atom.
http://www.physics.gla.ac.uk/introPhy/Famous/rutherford/rutherford.html

Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937)
Rutherford, Ernest (1871-1937): Born in New Zealand, Rutherford studied under J. J. Thomson at the Cavendish Laboratory in England. His work constituted a notable landmark in the history of atomic research as he developed Bacquerel's discovery of Radioactivity into an exact and documented proof that the atoms of the heavier elements, which had been thought to be immutable, actually disintegrate (decay) into various forms of radiation.
http://www.chemistry.co.nz/ernest_rutherford.htm

ChemTeam: Rutherford atom abstract of 1911
Ernest Rutherford
The Scattering of the a and b Rays and the Structure of the Atom, by PROFESSOR E. RUTHERFORD, F.R.S. From the Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, IV, 55, pp. 18-20. Abstract of a paper read before the Society on March 7, 1911:
"It is well known that the a and b particles are deflected from their rectilinear path by encounters with the atoms of matter. There seems to be no doubt that these swiftly moving particles actually pass through the atomic system, and a close study of the deflexions produced should throw light on the electrical structure of the atom. It has been usually assumed that the scattering observed is the result of a multitude of small scatterings. There are, however, a number of experiments on scattering, which indicate that an a or b particle occasionally suffers a deflexion of more than 90° in a single encounter. In order to explain these and other results, it is necessary to assume that the electrified particle passes through an intense electric field within the atom. The scattering of the electrified particles is considered for a type of atom which consists of a central electric charge concentrated at a point and surrounded by a uniform spherical distribution of opposite electricity equal in amount."
http://dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/Chem-History/Rutherford-atom-abstract.html

Rutherford's experiment
In the year 1898 Thomson created the idea of atom as the positive charged ball in which there are negative charges placed - the "plum cake" model. So summing up the whole atom were to be neutral.
In the years 1909-1911 Ernest Rutheford and his students - Hans Geiger (1882-1945) and Ernest Marsden conducted some experiments to search the problem of alpha particles scattering by the thin gold-leaf. Rutheford knew that the particles contain the 2e charge. The experiment caused the creation of the new model of atom - the "planetary" model.

http://library.thinkquest.org/19662/low/eng/exp-rutherford.html

Sir Ernest Rutherford
Sir Ernest Rutherford, b. near Nelson, New Zealand, Aug. 30, 1871, d. Oct. 19, 1937, perhaps more than any other scientist, formed modern-day views concerning the nature of matter. Rutherford's early work with Thomson led to investigations of electricity and radiation and eventually to a detailed study of radioactivity. Although others had pioneered the earliest developments in radioactivity, Rutherford soon achieved dominance in this field. He found that at least two kinds of radiation, which he labeled alpha and beta, existed. Working with Frederick Soddy in 1902-03, Rutherford identified the phenomenon of radioactive half-life and formulated the still-accepted explanation of radioactivity: each decay of the atoms of radioactive materials signifies the transmutation of a parent element into a daughter, with each type of atom having its own transformation period. Rutherford was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize for chemistry for his work in radioactivity. Rutherford made his greatest discovery in 1909. Shortly after his move to Manchester, he found that a few alpha particles, when bombarding thin metal foils, were deflected from their incident beam through more than 90 deg. "It was almost as incredible," Rutherford later responded in a now-classic statement, "as if you fired a fifteen-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you." Early in 1911 he finally announced his version of the structure of the atom: a very small, tightly packed, charged nucleus sprinkled with opposite charges in the mostly empty surrounding void.
http://faust.irb.hr/~dpaar/fizicari/xrutherf.html

Ernest Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford is considered the father of nuclear physics. Indeed, it could be said that Rutherford invented the very language to describe the theoretical concepts of the atom and the phenomenon of radioactivity. Particles named and characterized by him include the alpha particle, beta particle and proton. Even the neutron, discovered by James Chadwick, owes its name to Rutherford. For this work, Rutherford won the 1908 Nobel Prize in chemistry. In 1909, now at the University of Manchester, Rutherford was bombarding a thin gold foil with alpha particles when he noticed that although almost all of them went through the gold, one in eight thousand would "bounce" (i.e. scatter) back. The amazed Rutherford commented that it was "as if you fired a 15-inch naval shell at a piece of tissue paper and the shell came right back and hit you." From this simple observation, Rutherford concluded that the atom's mass must be concentrated in a small positively-charged nucleus while the electrons inhabit the farthest reaches of the atom. Although this planetary model of the atom has been greatly refined over the years, it remains as valid today as when it was originally formulated by Rutherford.
http://www.orcbs.msu.edu/radiation/radhistory/ernestrutherford.html

Ernest Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) was a New Zealand-born English physicist known as the "Father of Nuclear Physics." Rutherford described that radiation was caused by the destruction of atoms and that the alpha particle is the helium nucleus. This was the basis of his Nobel prize.
Rutherford also made two discoveries vital for nuclearphysics - an atom consists of a small nucleus surrounded by electrons, and by making clear the basic structure of atoms, elements can be artificially transmuted.
http://spaceboy.nasda.go.jp/note/Kagaku/E/kag113_rutherford_e.html

Rutherford Biography
Ernest Rutherford, British physicist, who became a Nobel laureate for his pioneering work in nuclear physics and for his theory of the structure of the atom.
http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/nobel/rutherford.html

The Scientists: Ernest Rutherford
I was once again struck, in my review of Rutherford's life, of how many great persons in history have had simple beginnings. Though he was to become one of the greatest pioneers of subatomic physics, Ernest Rutherford came from simple people, a family with "heart, head, hand." He was born in Spring Grove, South Island, New Zealand, the fourth of twelve children. His father was a "wheelwright and flaxmiller."
By 1910, Rutherford was beginning to understand the nature of the inner structure of the atom which led him to postulate the existence within the atom of a concentrated part, the "nucleus": this, indeed, was to be Rutherford's greatest contribution to physics. During 1920, Rutherford was to predict the existence of the neutron, which, a colleague of his, Sir James Chadwick (1891-1974), was to in fact to discover in 1932, and for which Chadwick was to receive a Nobel in 1935.
http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Science/Rutherford.htm