Discovery of Neutron
In
1911, English physicist James Chadwick graduated from Manchester's Victoria
University, where he studied with Ernest Rutherford, known as the Father of
Nuclear Physics.
After
the discovery of the proton, physicists speculated that there are possibly other
particles in the nucleus. Elements heavier than hydrogen have a mass greater
than their atomic number (number of protons). According to the theory of extra
particles, extra protons were included whose charge was covered by the
electrons in the center of the atom or by an unknown neutral particle. In 1932,
French physicists Frederic and Irene Joliot Curie emitted alpha particles on
the element beryllium and observed that an unknown radiation was released,
which resulted in the release of protons from the nuclei of various materials.
Iron Juliet Curie hypothesized that these rays were gamma rays. Chadwick
believed that alpha particles do not have enough energy to produce powerful
gamma rays. He himself conducted scattering experiments on beryllium elements
and he explained this radiation that this radiation is based on particles whose
mass is almost equal to that of protons, but they do not have any charge. Just
two weeks after the experiment, Chadwick wrote a paper "Possible existence
of a neutron" in which he stated that the evidence from the experiment was
in favor of neutrons instead of gamma-ray photons. Just a few months later, in
May 1932, Chadwick presented a paper entitled "The Existence of a
Neutron" in which he announced the discovery of the neutron.
The
existence of the neutron as a new fundamental particle was firmly established
by 1934. The discovery of the neutron led to a new way of breaking apart the
atom because the neutron, being electrically uncharged, could enter the nucleus
without bending which led to a new model of the nucleus. Which is based on
protons and neutrons.
James
Chadwick was awarded the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society in 1932, the Nobel
Prize in Physics in 1935, the Copley Medal in 1950, and the Franklin Medal in
1951 for this historic discovery. In 1945, the prince of England honored him
with the title of knight.
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