Ernest Rutherford is called the Newton of atomic physics. He was recognized by his fellow scientists as a man of colossal energy and tireless enthusiasm. As he himself remarked he lived in the “heroic age of physics”. Ernest Rutherford was born in New Zealand. He graduated from New Zealand University and entered Trinity College, Cambridge.
In 1919 he was appointed a Professor of experimental physics in the University of Cambridge. E. Rutherford’s early researches concerned electromagnetic waves. His experiments led him to develop a magnetic detector, which at that time was the best detector of electromagnetic waves.
His detector was later used by Marconi, one of the inventors of the radio, in his well-known investigations. Rutherford’s big triumph began when he turned his attention to radioactivity. His brilliant researches established the existence and nature of radioactive transformations. He also investigated the electrical structure of matter and the nuclear nature of atom. He was one of the founders of the atomic theory of physics and creators of the first atomic model.
He stated that the atom consisted of a nucleus around which electrons revolved in orbits. Even today his works did not lose their importance.
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