Fundamental alpha particle

In their studies with cathode rays, researchers observed different rays traveling in the opposite direction of cathode rays. In 1907, Thomson confirmed the rays carried a positive charge and had variable mass depending on the gas present in the cathode-ray tube. Thomson and others found the positive rays were as heavy or heavier than hydrogen atoms. In 1914, Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) proposed that the positive rays were composed of a particle of positive charge as massive as the hydrogen atom. Subsequent studies on the interaction of alpha particles with matter demonstrated that the fundamental positive particle was the proton. By 1919, Rutherford was credited with identifying the proton as the second fundamental particle. 

The last of the three fundamental particles is the neutron. Experimenters in the early 1930s bombarded elements with alpha particles. One type of particle produced had the same mass of the proton, but carried no charge. James Chadwick (1891-1974), in collaboration with Rutherford, conducted... 

This was just the start. In 1919 Rutherford found that alpha particles emitted from radium could chip protons from the nuclei of nitrogen atoms. This was something new. Radioactive elements decayed spontaneously into other elements because they were fundamentally unstable. But there was nothing unstable about nitrogen. Yet Rutherford had nevertheless managed to transmute it artificially. The newspapers found a catchy phrase for this feat splitting the atom . 

The atom was once thought to be the smallest unit of matter, but was then found to be composed of electrons, protons, and neutrons. The question arises are electrons, protons, and neutrons made of still smaller particles In the same way that Rutherford was able to deduce the atomic nucleus by bombarding atoms with alpha particles (Chapter 3), evidence for the existence of many other subatomic particles has been obtained by bombarding the atom with highly energetic radiation.This research over the past centmy has evolved into what is known as the "standard model of fundamental particles, which places all constituents of matter within one of two categories quarks and leptons. 

The claim by G A that only one of these traditions developed techniques to imitate real-world conditions is quite misleading. Both traditions used the cloud chamber to manufacture an artificial environment that approximates known phenomena. For the Cavendish physicists, the cloud chamber became one of the defining instruments of particle physics, precisely because the laboratory phenomena were modeled on the movement of the charged particles. The knotty clouds blended into the tracks of alpha particles and the threadlike" clouds simulate beta-particle trajectories (Galison Assmus, 1989, p. 268). Of course, G A are correct that these physicists aspired to dissect nature into its fundamental components, reflecting the long tradition of the corpuscular conception of matter. 

Poenaru, D. N. and W. Greiner. 1996. Handbook of Nuclear Properties. Oxford Studies in Nuclear Physics 17. Oxford, U.K./New York Oxford University Press. This handbook begins with information on atomic masses and shell model interpretations of nnclear masses. Additional information inclndes nnclear deformations and nnclear stability. Tables on fundamental constants, energy conversion factors, particle properties, alpha-particle emitters, and a table of nuclides are also included. 

Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) identified two types of radiation from radioactive materials, alpha (a) and beta (j8). Alpha particles carry two fundamental units of positive charge and have essentially the same mass as helium atoms. In fact, alpha particles are identical to He ions. Beta particles are negatively charged particles produced by changes occurring within the nuclei of radioactive atoms and have the same properties as electrons. A third form of radiation, which is not affected by electric or magnetic fields, was discovered in 1900 by Paul Villard. This radiation, called gamma rays (y). 

Which of the following is not a fundamental particle (a) proton (b) neutron (c) beta particle (d) alpha particle (e) all are fundamental particles... 

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