1. BY: GLORIA NGO WILSON WONG SIMON JINAPHANT JOSEPH CHU ERNEST RUTHERFORD

2. INTRODUCTION Born: August 30 th, 1871 in Brightwater, near Nelson, on South Island of New Zealand Famous Physicist Father: James Rutherford (a Scottish Wheelwright) Mother: Martha Thompson Rutherford Born in a family of 12 children as the fourth child and second son Had 6 brothers and 5 sisters Rutherford married Mary Newton in 1900 Had 1 child named Eileen who married the physicist R.H. Fowler

3. EDUCATION AND DISCOVERIES Was a very good student excelling in sciences and mathematics in government schools 1889 – Rutherford won a scholarship to study at Canterbury College In his final years there, he concentrated on physics and mathematics In last year there, he invented a sensitive radio-wave detector – 6 years after Hertz had discovered radio waves – the same year Marconi had began to use radio for practical purposes

4. EDUCATION AND DISCOVERIES then awarded a scholarship to study at Cambridge University with another famous physicist, J.J. Thomson 1896 – Rutherford and Thomson started to work together on conductivity of electricity in gases using x-rays 1898 – Rutherford’s studies revealed that the radioactive emission from radioactivity discovered 2 years before consisted of at least two kinds of rays – those less penetrating he called alpha rays – the other he called beta rays 2 years later he discovered a third even more penetrating kind, the gamma rays

5. DISCOVERIES 1903 – with Frederick Soddy, the two of them concluded that radiation was caused by atoms of radioactive material that were breaking apart – the “tiny bits” that were breaking apart were the alpha and beta rays 1903 – the two of them also proposed that radioactive decay occurs by successive transformations While process takes random amounts of time, it’s governed by average time in which half the atoms of sample would be expected to decay

6. DISCOVERIES Rutherford designed set of experiments with T. Royds to examine alpha rays finding mass and charge were correct for helium nuclei Experiment: placed a delicate glass bulb with radon gas that emitted off alpha particles in an evacuated tube particles could then be analyzed since they wouldn’t be able to pass through glass of the tube 1907 – became Langworthy Professor of Physics in University of Manchester 1908 – Rutherford and assistant, Hans Geiger created alpha particle detector, a scintillation screen for observing alpha particles

7. THE GOLD FOIL EXPERIMENT 1909 – Rutherford gave his student, Ernest Marsden, task of studying if metal would be able to deflect path of an alpha particle observed that one particle out of about 8000 particles bounced off a thin foil of gold, rather than passing through it like the rest led to conclusion that atom’s mass must be concentrated in positively-charged nucleus while electrons are on outside space of atom before this, it was assumed that atom was made up of positively charged sphere with negatively charged electrons moving around inside

8. DIAGRAM OF GOLD FOIL EXPERIMENT

9. VIDEO

10. AWARDS/ACCOLADES 1894 – Awarded 1851 Exhibition Science Scholarship 1908 – Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1914 – Knighted 1921 – Awarded the Order of Merit 1922 – Awarded Copley Medal 1925 – 1930 -- President of the Royal Society 1931 – Titled “1 st Baron Rutherford of Nelson”

11. DEATH Cause: Complications of surgery Died in 1937 – Buried at Westminister Abbey, London, England