James Chadwick
James Chadwick is not a household name. Yet he made one of the most significant contributions to science ever. He discovered the neutron, and by doing so, he allowed the modern world of science, medicine and technology to become what they are today. Without him, the world might not have turned out the same.Born to a middle class family in England, Chadwick attended boarding school. In 1907, while going to the university of Manchester, James Chadwick accidentally found himself in the line for those hoping to major in physics. Chadwick, who wanted to be a mathematician, was too shy to acknowledge his mistake and stayed in line.In 1913, he received his master's degree and went to Germany to work with Hans Geiger. While there, Chadwick was the first person to show that beta particles have a range of energies. The world was rapidly changing, and Chadwick was trapped right in the middle of it all. He became trapped in Germany during the start of World War I. Chadwick was immediately imprisoned in a horse stall at a racetrack that served as an internment camp. This was a terrible time in the world. Many countries in Europe were against each other in a war, while one of the smartest men ever was sitting locked up in a horse stall. For
As they studied atomic disintegration, they kept seeing that the atomic number (number of protons in the nucleus, equivalent to the positive charge of the atom) was less than the atomic mass (average mass of the atom). He was able to determine that the neutron did exist and that its mass was about 0. They used a different method for tracking particle radiation. He called it a neutron, and imagined it as a paired proton and electron. Since electrons have almost no mass, it seemed that something besides the protons in the nucleus were adding to the mass. This new idea dramatically changed the picture of the atom and accelerated discoveries in atomic physics. For example, a helium atom has an atomic mass of 4, but an atomic number of 2. The protons still contributed their mass but their positive charge was canceled out by the negatively charged electrons in the nucleus to yield a mass of 4 but a change of only 2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------**Bibliography**Bibliography1. His findings were quickly accepted and Werner Heisenberg then showed that the neutron could not be a proton-electron pairing, but had to be its own unique particle, the third piece of the atom to be found. In 1919, Rutherford had discovered the proton, a positively charged particle within the atom's nucleus. "Rutherford also put out the idea that there could be a particle with mass but no charge.
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Acceptance Essays
