Biography
Ernest Rutherford's family emigrated from England to New Zealand before he was born. Ernest was born on a successful family owned farm near Nelson, New Zealand. He was one of 12 children. Rutherford loved to work and was a diligent student and won a university scholarship. After college he won another scholarship to study at Cambridge University in England. There he met J.J. Thomson, who soon discovered the electron, and Thomson encouraged Rutherford to study recently discovered x-rays. This began Rutherford's long career in atomic physics.
During Rutherford's career in the field he coined the terms alpha, beta, gamma rays, the proton, the neutron, half-life, and daughter atoms. |
