The story of springs and their potential energy is a fascinating one that stretches back centuries. Before we had the coiled springs we’re familiar with today, people used leaf springs made of curved metal strips. These were not very efficient and required constant lubrication, plus they were noisy. The game-changer came in 1763 when R. … Read more
The journey into the history of nuclear fusion starts in the early 20th century. Scientists were curious about how stars, including our Sun, produced such vast amounts of energy. The British physicist Arthur Eddington was one of the first to suggest that stars might be powered by nuclear fusion, combining hydrogen atoms to form helium … Read more
The discovery of nuclear fission marked a significant milestone in atomic physics. It all began on December 19, 1938, in Berlin, when German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann were conducting experiments bombarding uranium with neutrons. To their surprise, they found that instead of creating a heavier element as expected, the uranium nucleus split into … Read more
The discovery of beta decay traces back to the late 19th century. In 1899, Ernest Rutherford, a pioneering physicist in radioactivity, observed that some elements emitted radiation that could penetrate metal foils and fog photographic plates. This was different from alpha radiation, which he had already characterized. Rutherford named this new radiation “beta rays,” after … Read more
Alpha decay was first discovered by Ernest Rutherford in the early 20th century. While studying radioactivity, he found that certain elements emitted a type of radiation that could be blocked by just a sheet of paper or even the skin. This was unlike other forms of radiation, such as beta or gamma rays, which required … Read more
The journey into the heart of the atom began with Ernest Rutherford. In 1911, he proposed the nuclear model of the atom, which was a groundbreaking shift from the earlier plum pudding model suggested by J.J. Thomson. Rutherford’s model came as a result of the famous Gold Foil Experiment conducted by Hans Geiger and Ernest … Read more
The discovery of radioactivity was a serendipitous event that marked a significant milestone in the field of physics. It all began with Henri Becquerel, a French physicist who, in 1896, was investigating the properties of phosphorescent materials. He was particularly interested in whether phosphorescent materials, such as certain uranium salts, emitted X-rays after being exposed … Read more
The idea of atoms as the fundamental building blocks of matter dates back to ancient Greece, but it wasn’t until the 19th century that the concept began to take a scientific form. John Dalton, in the early 1800s, proposed that each element is composed of unique atoms and that chemical reactions involve the rearrangement of … Read more
Before Bohr, there was a quest to understand the atom’s structure. In 1897, J.J. Thomson discovered the electron and proposed the ‘plum pudding model,’ which suggested that electrons were scattered within a ‘pudding’ of positive charge. However, this model couldn’t explain certain experimental results like the emission spectra or the outcomes of alpha particle scattering … Read more
The story of atomic spectra began long before the term was even coined. It’s a tale of curiosity and discovery that spans centuries. The earliest known studies of the dispersion of light date back to the Romans, who were aware of the ability of a prism to create a rainbow of colors. However, it was … Read more