Proton

:For alternative meanings see proton (disambiguation).

History

The proton was discovered in 1918 by Ernest Rutherford. He noticed that when alpha particles were shot into nitrogen gas, his scintillation detectors showed the signatures of hydrogen nuclei. Rutherford determined that the only place this hydrogen could have come from was the nitrogen, and therefore nitrogen must contain hydrogen nuclei. He thus suggested that the hydrogen nucleus, which was known to have an atomic number of 1, was an elementary particle.

Related Topics:
1918 - Ernest Rutherford - Alpha particle - Nitrogen - Scintillation

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