Who discovered Neutron?
VerifiedAnswer: James Chadwick
Explanation:
The neutron was discovered by British physicist James Chadwick in 1932. This groundbreaking discovery earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1935 and revolutionized our understanding of atomic structure.
Before Chadwick's discovery, scientists knew that atoms contained protons and electrons, but they couldn't explain why atomic mass was greater than the combined mass of these particles. For instance, hydrogen had one proton and one electron, but helium seemed to have twice the mass of what two protons and two electrons would account for. This puzzle led scientists to suspect there might be another particle hiding in the atomic nucleus.
Chadwick's discovery built upon earlier work by German physicists Walther Bothe and Herbert Becker, who had observed unusual radiation when they bombarded beryllium with alpha particles. Initially, this radiation was thought to be gamma rays. However, when French scientists Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie studied this radiation further, they found that it could knock protons out of paraffin wax with tremendous energy.
Chadwick realized that this mysterious radiation couldn't be gamma rays because gamma rays don't have enough energy to knock out protons so forcefully. He conducted his own experiments at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, using a more sophisticated approach. He bombarded various light elements like beryllium, boron, and lithium with alpha particles and carefully measured the energy of the particles that were knocked out.
Through mathematical calculations and careful analysis, Chadwick concluded that this radiation consisted of particles that had approximately the same mass as protons but carried no electrical charge. He named these particles "neutrons" because they were electrically neutral.
The discovery of neutrons solved many atomic puzzles and had profound implications for science. It explained why atomic masses were higher than expected and completed our basic understanding of atomic structure. We now know that atomic nuclei contain both protons (positively charged) and neutrons (neutral), while electrons orbit around the nucleus.
Chadwick's discovery also paved the way for nuclear physics and eventually led to the development of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. The neutron became a crucial tool for nuclear reactions because, being electrically neutral, it could easily penetrate atomic nuclei without being repelled by positive charge.
