How were electrons and protons and neutrons discovered?

Answer 1

Democritus(about 400 B.C.) coined the term "atom"-- the smallest particle of matter

Sir Ernest Rutherford bombarded 1000 alpha(positive) rays on a gold foil of 0.0004mm.He observed that only one ray reflected back and most of them passed straightly and also some of them deflected slightly.From this,he concluded that atom contains something with positive charge at its center and is the nucleus.He also concluded that atom's most part is hollow and nucleus is the main reason for the weight of an atom.

Discovery of Electron

JJ Thomson looked further into electricity and magnetism and discovered a particle that is contained in atoms, the electron. This is how he came up with the idea.

A cathode ray is a stream of electrons, a negatively charged particle two thousand times lighter then a hydrogen atom. Atoms contain electrons; they are near the outside of the atom because they are easily removed. Cathode rays are experimented with, using a cathode ray tube.

A cathode ray tube has a small heater element sealed inside a vacuum, a small positively charged electrode (a solid electric conductor where an electric current enters at one end and leaves at the other), and a negatively charged cathode. There is a fluorescent screen on the other end of the devise. When the element is connected to the cathode, a bright dot appears on the screen. The element is giving out an invisible beam which is attracted to the electrode, passes through it and hits the screen. This beam is the cathode ray. Thomson suggested that a cathode ray is a stream of electrons that is given out by the atom.

At first, Thomson thought that atoms were made up of thousands of electrons to account for their mass. Thus hydrogen would be made up of more than two thousand electrons. If this were true, atoms would have an extremely high negative electric charge, but atoms usually have no charge. Thomson then suggested that atoms did not contain so many electrons, but a number roughly equal to its atomic number. For example, the atom hydrogen contains only one electron, far fewer than the thousands that was originally suggested.

To make the atom neutral, there must be a positive charge somewhere in the atom to balance out the negatively charged electrons. Atoms contain the same number of positively charged particles as they do negative. To express his idea, Thomson invented the "Plum Pudding" model, as it looks a bit like a plum pudding.

Discovery of the Proton

Ernest Rutherford discovered the existence of the proton in 1918 through an experiment that sent alpha particles through nitrogen gas.

Importance of the Proton

The proton is important because the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom determines which chemical element the atom is.

Discovery of the Neutron

James Chadwick discovered the neutron in 1932 after a series of experiments that he and other scientists conducted.

Importance of the Neutron

The number of neutrons an atom contains determines its isotope, which is the same element, but with a different Atomic Mass.

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