Early Nuclear Physics Essay

Models provide the physical testing and proof of a hypothesis by exploring the extent to which the two factors relate within the given hypothesis. It puts a theory into action, to see if the theory is corrected causes and effects.

Models provide the physical testing and proof of a hypothesis by exploring the extent to which the two factors relate within the given hypothesis. It puts a theory into action, to see if the theory is correct.

Before the Manhattan Project, in the beginning there were many advancements in understanding made in the world of physics. These resulted in the recognition of nuclear fission and its potential as an energy source and as a potential weapon. Of these advancements none was more central and important than the development of the nuclear model of the atom, which by the year of 1932 contained a nucleus containing most of the mass of an atom in the form of two particles, protons and neutrons. This nucleus was surrounded by an electron shell. Previously it was thought that atoms were the smallest form of matter therefore ultimately stable and indivisible. However, in 1919 Ernest Rutherford was able to break apart the nucleus of nitrogen with

In 1899 Rutherford discovered radioactivity as well as alpha, beta and gamma rays, these were found while he was performing studies on the absorption of radioactivity, which was done by using thin sheets of metal and two components that he found, alpha and beta. Alpha radiation is absorbed by a centimetre of a few thousandths of metal foil. Beta radiation can progress through 100 times as much foil before it will be absorbed. While Rutherford found the two rays he yet found another shortly after called the gamma ray which can puncture as much as several centimetres of lead.

He positioned a variety of metal foil in the route of the alpha rays, including gold, silver, tin, copper and aluminium (at different times) to observe whether the flashes of light moved, spread out, or changed at all. He found that as the various metals disrupted the paths of the rays the flashes become more spread out. This result indicated that alpha particles were being deflected as they passed through the metals. Rutherford wanted to know if alpha particles could be deflected at a larger angle, as the current tool developed by Geiger could only measure deflection of up to a few angles.

In 1899, Rutherford coated a screen with zinc sulfide and sat in the darkness, counting each light particle that was emitted. Finding that the particles broadened when passing through a thin layer of metal, he had his assistant, Hans Geiger, find the thinnest layer of metal he could find. Producing a gold foil, with a thickness of 0.00004 cm. thick, bombarded the foil with particles.

_Originally, physicists made assumptions about the separation that it was due to high-energy gamma radiation () because of its resemblance effect on electrons in metals. However, James Chadwick challenged their assumptions by demonstrating how the ionization effect was too powerful for gamma radiation to be it, due to electromagnetic radiation. In addition, James Chadwick solved the indistinction of Beryllium radiation by not only introducing various elements like hydrogen and nitrogen. While Chadwick was measuring the protons, he also measured the process of how new radiation influences the atoms of certain gases. Eventually, James Chadwick came up with the conclusion saying the new radiation consists zero charged particles with almost the equivalent mass as the proton, and these particles were neutrons.

Ernest Rutherford, 31 year old New Zealander, partners with Frederick Soddy to try and solve the mystery of uranium. They find that uranium spits out chunks of itself, and these chunks are radiation. The uranium then transforms into a completely different element. When the uranium spit out chunks of itself, it was losing protons so it no longer has 92. This is called transmutation.

After the whole class boarded the magic limousine once again, we all all traveled to the year 1899. The whole 10th grade chemistry class met Ernest Rutherford. Earnest and Ms. Siepsiak seemed to be great friends! How cool is that? While he was conducting his Gold foil experiment he explained that he set up a thin beam of alpha particles to stream over to a sheet of gold. He also placed a sample of radium inside a lead box with a small hole in it. As the experiment went on, Rutherford analyzed that most of the radiation was absorbed by the lead. However, at the same time a thin beam of alpha particles shot out of the pinhole and went towards the gold foil. The gold foil experiment was set up in a way that it was surrounded by a detector screen

Before the First World War, German scientists James Franck and Gustav Hertz conducted experiments where they added electrons to Mercury atoms. They traced the energy changes that the collision caused. That experiment led Nils Bohr to make a theory that an atom can absorb energy in precise and definite amounts. After that experiment, many other scientists conducted research on radioactive methods to chemical problems and conducted more experiments on how elements would react when elements

Their discovery of the radioactive isotopes composed and important step toward the solution of the problem of releasing the energy of the atom, using neutrons instead of alpha particles for the bombardments which led to the fission of

Nuclear fission is either a nuclear reaction or a radioactive decay process in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts, as shown in Fig 1. The discovery of fission in the 1930’s showed us that the heaviest of the nuclei’s were loosely bound in their ground state. An excitation energy of as little as a few percent of their total binding energy is sufficient to induce the breakdown of the nuclei, into two pieces, releasing a vast quantity of energy in the order of around 200 MeV. Therefore, compared to fossil fuels like oil, natural gas or coal the specific energy content for nuclear fuel is roughly 108 times larger. This figure alone identifies the importance of fission in nuclear technology and production of

large sample size the model use as well as the capability to directly authenticate the model also it can disclose their analytic advantage.

Ernest Rutherford was born in New Zealand and died in Britain, however during his life he worked McGill University in Canada (“Ernest Rutherford - Biographical”, 2014). During Rutherford's life he made significant contributions to Science; in 1998 when studying Uranium he discovered Alpha and Beta radiation (“Ernest Rutherford: Father of nuclear science”, n.d.). In 1903, Rutherford saw that a French chemist, Paul Villard, had discovered a new type of radiation coming from radium, upon discerning that this new radiation was different then the ones he had already discovered due to its greater penetrating power, Rutherford named it Gamma radiation (“Ernest Rutherford”, 2017). Using his previously found out types of radiation, he discovered the concept of half-life, how long it takes for a sample of an element to decay to half its size. However, the most infamous experiment he did, was the Gold Foil Experiment. In 1910, in order to confirm JJ Thomson’s model on an atom Ernest Rutherford conducted an experiment along with Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden where a thin piece of gold was bombarded with Alpha particles, while most went through (meaning that an atom is mostly empty space), some were deflected, and a few even bounced backwards. This led to the discovery of the neutron, a positively charged area of the atom which was responsible for Alpha particles being deflected and bouncing back. With this new information disproving JJ Thomson’s model, Rutherford created a new atomic

Nuclear knowledge has existed for a long time. Nuclear Engineering U.S. Department of Energy relates, ―By 1900, the physicists knew the atom contains large quantities of energy‖ (par 11). Many others formed good theories, such as Ernest Rutherford and Einstein’s contribution with his equation E=mc^2. In 1934