Ernest Rutherford

Ernest

Rutherford

Basic Information

Interesting

Information

Date of Birth: August 30, 1871

Date of Death: October 19, 1937

- Rutherford was knighted-Sir Ernest Rutherford

- He has a element named after him "Rutherffordium".

- His actual name s Earnest Rutherford because they messed up his name which was suppose to be just Ernest Rutherford.

- Had a scholarship that was able to go to any college in the world.

by Cynthia Lam

Ernest Rutherford grew up in Brightwater, New Zealand. In memorial of him, a statue of young Rutherford is presented there of him "walking out to the future".

Life

- He received his first science book at the age of 10 at Foxhill School.

- Then he attenced Havelock School where his family had to move because of his - father's work.

- In his childhood, he was surrounded by mostly hard working engineers.

- Won the Marlborough Scholarship to attend to Nelson College.

- Won the University of New Zealand Scholarship

- He attended Canterbury College in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Completed Bachelor's)

- Completed his Master's with twice First Class Honors. (Math, Math Physics, Physical Science)

- He was granted to go to any college in the world from the Exhibition of 1851 scholarship. So he went to Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University. Then he went to Mc Gill University.

- He got married to Mary Georgina and had a daughter named Eileen.

- He wins his Noble Prize in Chemistry "Father of the Nuclear Age"

Gold Foil Experiment

-With his Gold Foil Experiment, Rutherford theorized that atoms have their mass concentrated in the nucleus. He is correct because the majority of the mass of an atom, composing of protons and neutrons, are in the nucleus. Note that electron do have mass, but it is so small that it does not impact the overall mass of the atom. During the experiment, Rutherford shot alpha particles through a thin sheet of gold foil. Thinking that the alpha particle is so large, it should pass through the gold foil with ease. However, he observed that once in a while, alpha particles bounced back from the gold foil. This led to the conclusion of the atom having a dense nucleus and the atom is composed of mostly empty space.

Atomic Theory

Rutherford found out about the nucleus and proton of an atom by the Gold Foil experiment.

Resources

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/29008/rutherford-memorial

http://www.rutherford.org.nz/biography.htm

http://ernestrutherfordpd7.weebly.com/interesting-facts.html

http://www.rutherford.org.nz/milestones.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherford_model

http://www.famousscientists.org/ernest-rutherford/

http://www.biography.com/people/ernest-rutherford-39099

http://periodical.weebly.com/rutherford.html