Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford was born at Spring Grove in rural Nelson, New Zealand,
on August 30th, 1871. He was the fourth child and second son (of 12
children) to his parents James Rutherford and Martha Thompson. Ernest's
father was an all purpose laborer in that he was a mechanic, wheelwright,
engineer, flax-miller and a farmer. Ernest's mother was a school teacher
before marriage and was able to give her children an education (in addition
to the local schooling) that was as good as any that could be provided at the
time. Both James and Martha stressed the importance of education to their
children throughout their lives: partly because Martha had an education
and knew what opportunities it offered, and partly because James lacked
an education and wanted his children to surpass his limited potential. In
any case, the Rutherford children were always assured that All knowledge is
power.
As can be expected, Ernest demonstrated unique arithmetical abilities and
an unusual desire for learning at a very early age. Considering the fact that
Ernest grew up as a young country boy in a rural part of New Zealand, the
teachers of the local schools greatly encouraged such curiosity. At the age of
ten Ernest at long last acquired his first science text book from the Foxhill
School. From this divine book he was able to acquire an idea that soon
turned into his first recorded experiment.
Luckily, Rutherford survived his first experiment and was able to survive
his pre-mature experiments and scientific inquiries long enough for him to
attend secondary school. At that time the Scholarship to Nelson College was
the only scholarship available for children of Rutherford's rural and poor
background. Needless to say, competition was over abundant. Upon his
second attempt, Rutherford was finally able to win the scholarship in 1887
and begin his secondary education.
Rutherford spent his next three years at Nelson College and came under the
tuition of the master William Littlejohn. In addition to being head boy and a
member on the school rugby team, Rutherford managed to top his class in
every subject during his final year at Nelson. At the end of that year
Rutherford won one of ten nationwide Junior Scholarships to the
University of New Zealand (currently the University of Canterbury) in 1889
(once more on his second attempt). Rutherford remained in New Zealand
and continued to pursue various degrees until he left for Cambridge
University at the age of twenty three. Soon afterwards Rutherford
befriended J.J. Thomson (who acted not only as a helpful colleague but also
as a mentor) and began his insightful career as both physicist and chemist.
The rest of this story is written down in all types of science text books and
will remain in such books until the end of time.
The Rutherford
Timeline
1896: Sets the world record for the distance over which
'wireless' waves were detected.
An Overview of Radiation
and Radioactivity
Even though Ernest Rutherford was by trade a physicist, a lot of his research
served to shed light on once unknown aspects of radioactivity and nuclear
chemistry. Of his many contributions to these fields is his classification and
description of alpha particles. As will be discussed in subsequent pages,
Rutherford didn't necessarily discover alpha particles as much as he recognized
their existence. However, a base understanding of the history of radiation and
radioactivity must be obtained before Rutherford's contributions are discussed. I
shall therefore start from the beginning.
The first steps into deciphering radiation were taken by Wilhelm Rntgen in
1895 when he placed his hand in front of a radioactive source to discover that a
shadowed outline of the bones of his hand was being projected onto the screen
behind him. Rntgen was so thrilled by this discovery that he isolated himself
from everyone he knew (with the exception of brief comments to his wife) so that
he could experiment with this unknown form of radiation. Unbeknownst to him
at the time, Rntgen was directly exposing himself to high amounts of hazardous
radiation; which couldn't had been good for his health. But despite such
consequences, Rntgen was able to publish his research soon after the discovery
and called the radiation "X-rays."
Even though Rutherford worked with both alpha and beta particles (which
were later identified as being helium nuclei, He^(+2), and electrons;
respectively), his work with alpha particles tends to be emphasized since
they were primary components of several of his more commonly known
experiments. In fact, the foundation for his Gold Foil Experiment (perhaps
one of his greatest scientific achievements) was laid down when he began
measuring the specific charge of alpha particles by deflecting them in
electric and magnetic fields.
*Note- Above is an image that depicts alpha particle radiation. Even
though the process at which these particles are formed wasn't necessarily
described by Rutherford, the image provides some incite as to what exactly
Rutherford was working with.
Rutherford's initial desire for these tests was to find the deflection of the
alpha particles by measuring their position on a photographic film.
However, while he was making the appropriate measurements he noticed
that the images on the film became blurred when the particles passed
through a thin piece of mica. The images were clear and distinct when
the mica plate was removed, but became slightly blurred every time the
plate was inserted in the particle pathway. Seeing how Rutherford had an
extremely inquisitive mind, he could not help but ask the all important
question of "why?".
Incidentally, the images that Rutherford saw were blurred because the
small alpha particles were being deflected at slight angles by the nuclei of
the atoms in the mica sheet. At this point in time the nucleus of an atom had
not been discovered, so Rutherford had no way of explaining why he was
seeing what he was seeing. However, Rutherford was by nature a scientist
and could not be content with just not knowing. Thus in his quest for
knowledge he performed the most well known of all of his experiments: The
Gold Foil Experiment.
The Gold Foil
Experiment
Before Ernest Rutherford's landmark experiment with a few pieces of
metal foil and alpha particles, the structure of the atom was thought to
correspond with the plum pudding model. In summary, the plum
pudding model was hypothesized by J.J. Thomson (the discoverer of the
electron) who described an atom as being a large positively charged body
that contained small, free-floating, negatively charged particles called
electrons. The plum pudding model also states that the negative charge of
the electrons is equivalent to the positive charge of the rest of the atom.
The two charges cancel each other causing and cause the electrical charge
of the atom to be zero (or neutral). The faulty aspect of this model is that it
was construed before the nucleus of an atom (and its composition) was
discovered; which is where Rutherford's research comes in.
Text:
http://www.chemheritage.org/EducationalSer
vices/ chemach/ans/er.html
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/rutherford.htm
l
Images:
Image One: www.atomicarchive.com
Image Two:
www.collegeflagsandbanners.com/
generic143.html
A Young Ernest
Rutherford
Text:
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/rutherford.htm
l
http://www.rutherford.org.nz
Images:
Image One: www.atomicarchive.com