Ernest+Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford was born on August 30, 1871 in New Zealand. He was given a university scholarship in 1889. He later attended Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory and McGill University. Rutherford was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1908 for his discovery and work on radioactivity. Rutherford had discovered two kind of radation, called alpha and beta. He concluded that alpha particles were double the charge of helium ions. In 1909, he discovered artificial disintegration, which is the artificial splitting of an atom. That same year, he found that alpha particles deflected off of some thin metal foils if the beam was more than ninety percent. This discovery greatly surprised Rutherford. He said, "It was almost as incredible as if you fired a fifteen-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you." His gold foil experiment is what he is mostly famous for. Ernest Rutherford was also awarded the Order of Merit in 1921 and the Copley Medal in 1922. Rutherford had also discovered the nucleus and the proton. His version of the atom consisted of a nucleus and electrons that orbited the atom. He thought that atoms were composed of empty space. Rutherford also believed that all of the mass of an atom was found in the nucleus, which is still thought to be true today. Rutherford's model was slightly incorrect because he had the electrons following a specific path and there were only protons inside of the nucleus.

Created by: Kaylea Stump