1. Ernest Rutherford
“Father of Nuclear
Physics”

2. Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1908)
Element 104, Rutherfordium, is named in his
honor
Notable Awards:

3. • Text

4. Known for:
Father of nuclear physics
Rutherford model
Rutherford scattering
Rutherford backscattering
spectroscopy
Discovery of proton
Rutherford (unit)
Coining the term 'artificial
disintegration'

5. Early Life and Education:
• Ernest Rutherford was born on August 30, 1871, Spring Grove
near Nelson, New Zealand
• Ernest studied in a Government school and after he completed
his schooling he won a scholarship to Nelson Collegiate
School.
• At Cambridge, he worked as a research student at the
Cavendish Laboratory under Professor J.J Thomson.
• Later he left for Canada when he was given the opportunity to
take the chair of physics at McGill University in Montreal.
• In 1900 Rutherford married Mary Newton, only daughter of his
landlady in Christchurch.

6. Contribution to the Field of
Physics
• 1896 Rutherford and Thomson were
working together on the conductivity of
electricity in gases using x rays
• While experimenting on radioactivity
during 1899, Rutherford discovered two
distinctive types of radiation emitted by
thorium and uranium which he named
alpha and beta. These rays were
distinguished on the basis of penetrating
power.

7. These could be distinguished by
their ability to penetrate
materials: α rays would not pass
through a thin piece of paper; β
radiation was more powerful and
could penetrate thin sheets of
metal foil.

12. Radiation was caused
by atoms of
radioactive material
breaking apart.

14. (a) In her thesis, Marie Curie reported the drawing on the left which showed the
effect of a magnetic field on the three forms of radioactivity. Alpha-particles
were deflected more slowly than beta-particles, which suggested that alpha-
particles were heavier than beta-particles. Gamma-rays were not affected by a
magnetic field. (b) The effect of an electric field on the different forms of
radioactivity shows that alpha-particles and beta-particles are both electrically
charged, but they carry charges with opposite signs. Gamma-rays are not
affected by an electric field and therefore have no electric charge

15. Gold

16. Summary:
Rutherford discovered and named alpha and beta
decay and coined the terms alpha, beta, and
gamma rays. He demonstrated radioactivity was
the spontaneous disintegration of atoms and was
the first person to artificially disintegrate an
element. He identifed alpha particles as helium
nuclei. Rutherford's gold foil experiment helped
describe the nuclear structure of the atom. The
deflection of the alpha particles implied the
existence of a dense, positively charged central
region containing most of the atomic mass. In
1920, he hypothesized the existence of the
neutron.