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Previous | Home | NextThe Geiger-Marsen team "discovered the nuclear atom" by the famous experiment in 1911 where alpha particles were scattered by gold. Rutherford announced the conclusion that the atom was mostly empty space with a dense nucleus in 1911. In 1919 the research group "split the atom" by reacting nitrogen-14 with alpha particles to form oxygen-17 according to the process:
7N14 + 2He4 = 8O17 + 1p 1
Rutherford clearly " initiated the field of nuclear physics by correctly conceiving of the structure of the atom with its nucleus with positively charged particles (protons) surrounded by light negatively charged particles (electrons). He hypothesized neutrons, as well, which were discovered later at Cambridge University {LINK: Cambridge}. Courtesy, Dr. David Alan Gilbert 2009.
