Ernest Rutherford

By: Anas and Dawson

 • August 30, 1871- Ernest Rutherford born in Spring Grove, New
Brief Biography Zealand
• He was the fourth of 12 children
• He spent most of his time after school milking cows and on
the weekends swimming in the creek with his brothers
• At the age of 10 he was given his first science book, that
inspired his first scientific experiment
• In 1887, he was awarded his first scholarship at Nelson
Collegiate School
• He would start to play for their rugby team in 1889
• In 1895, as the first research student at Cambridge University,
he found a easier way to detect radio waves, then Heinrich Hertz
did before
• In 1900, married Mary Newton and later had a daughter who
they named Eileen
• He received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1908
• Sadly on October 19, 1937, died in Cambridge, England at 66
year old from a umbilical hernia
 Accomplishments
• His first accomplishment was going to Cambridge University and studying
under J. J. Thomson
• Here he began experimenting with the transmission of radio waves
and radioactivity. During that time, he invented a way to detect
electromagnetic waves and used the terms “alpha” and “beta” to
describe the two different types of radiation emitted by thorium and
uranium
• He and Thomson also studied x-rays and wrote a paper about
dividing molecules and atoms into ions
• In 1897, he was awarded a BA Research Degree and the Coutts-Trotter
Studentship
• In 1902, he worked with Frederick Soddy to theorize that energy was
emitted from within an atom and that when alpha and beta particles were
emitted at the same time, they caused a chemical change across
elements
More Accomplishments
• In 1919, he became the first to transmute one element to another. He
was able to convert nitrogen to oxygen by firing alpha particles at it.
From this experiment, he discovered the proton, a positively charged
subatomic particle
• While working with Niels Bohr in 1921, he theorized the neutron, a
neutrally charged subatomic particle. Rutherford theorized a
neutron would compensate for this repellant force by causing an
attractive nuclear force. This is known as strong nuclear force, one
of the Four Fundamental Forces
• In 1914, Rutherford was knighted and then in 1925, he was awarded
the Order of Merit
• In 1931, he was elevated to the peerage and became the first Baron
Rutherford of Nelson and Cambridge.
The Gold Foil Experiment
In 1907, Rutherford moved back to
England, becoming a professor at the
University of Manchester. There he
made a remarkable, arguable most
important, discovery: Most of the
mass of the atom is concentrated in
the center. This gave birth to the
Bohr-Rutherford Model of the Atom.
This discovery shaped the way for
nuclear physics and lead to the
development of the atom bomb.
How did the experiment work?
A special gun-like device containing Radon is used to
shoot a steady stream of alpha particles at gold foil. This
golden foil is only a few atoms thick. Scientists
discovered the alpha particles would pass through the
golden foil and hit the detecting screen. However, they
discovered something remarkable: every 1 in 8000 alpha
particles would bounce back towards the gun.
Rutherford realized this was due to the fact that an
atom contains a nucleus that contains most of its mass.
The electrons would orbit the atom in paths called
orbitals. Most of the time, the alpha particles could just
pass through the atoms without hitting the nucleus.
Sometimes, though, the alpha particle would hit the
nucleus and bounce back.
Bibliography
Websites:
Ernest Rutherford. (2017, August 03). Retrieved March 21, 2018, from https://www.biography.com/people/ernest-rutherford-39099

Ernest Rutherford - Biographical. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2018, from

https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1908/rutherford-bio.html

Ernest Rutherford. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.physicsoftheuniverse.com/scientists_rutherford.html

Pictures:
Ernest Rutherford [Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2018, from
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/Ernest_Rutherford_LOC.jpg/330px-Ernest_Rutherford_LOC.jpg

Annenberg Learner. (2017). Chemistry. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from

https://www.learner.org/courses/chemistry/text/text.html?dis=U&num=Ym5WdElUQS9OQ289&sec=Ym5WdElUQS9NeW89

Spring Grove [Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/2285581.jpg
More Bibliography
More Pictures
Rutherford Model of the Atom [Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2018, from
https://atomicmodeltimelinervmf.weebly.com/uploads/1/7/9/9/17998887/1823773_orig.jpg
g

Niels Bohr [Digital image]. (2018, March 26). Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Niels_Bohr.jpg
.

Cambridge University [Digital image]. (2018, March 26). Retrieved from

http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/2017/10/21/618724-4.png
.

Alpha-Beta-Gamma Radiations [Digital image]. (2018, March 26). Retrieved from http://image.tutorvista.com/content/atom/alpha-beta-gamma-
radiations.gif
.

Rutherford [Digital image]. (2018, March 26). Retrieved from https://secure.i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01292/rutherford_1292860c.jpg

.

Cockcroft, J. (2018, March 20). Ernest Rutherford [Digital image]. Retrieved March 28, 2018, from https://www.famousscientists.org/?s=rutherford

Video:
BBC Documentary Atom: The Clash of the Titans | BBC Documentary 2015.
(2015, July 24). Retrieved March 27, 2018, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm3p_3Vgejk