Joseph J Thomson Research Paper

This paper discusses the life of Sir Joseph John Thomson (J.J. Thomson) and his scientific discoveries. It will also discuss how it has impacted our lives today and if we would have what we have today without his research and hard work. He was a shy boy who was gifted when it came to science. He lost his father when he was young but strived to have a better nonetheless. After becoming a Fellow of the Trinity, he started working with Lord Rayleigh and later became his successor. He found what electrons were and gave a theory about where they came from. He also found what isotopes are and what their comprehensive capabilities are. He created the Mass Spectrometer that will help see what chemicals are in something by how far the ions travel. This …show more content…
Due to his discovery this led to many other scientists to look into subatomic particles and examine them closely. Later J.J. had proposed his own model of the atom but was later proved wrong by Ernst Rutherford. J.J. depicted the atom as electrons orbiting a positively charged nucleus and compared it to plum pudding wit the electrons being the plums and the pudding being the positively charged nucleus. He also created a new device that could analyze a chemical closer than the regular human could, called the mass spectrometer. The way the mass spectrometer worked was it works the same way as cathode ray. Except, instead of using electrons, it uses positive ions with ionized elements and deflected by electric and magnetic fields and the lower the mass and the higher the charge the farther its going to be deflected. This is how they discover the chemical elements within a substance. In 1907, he then discovered that a hydrogen atom only has one electron by showing a various amount of methods. He then discovered isotopes "when his research student Francis Aston fired ionized neon through a magnetic and electric field", a mass spectrometer which was also created by J.J. Thomson, and observed that it had deflected in two different directions and concluded that it had two different atomic masses within the element. His student later then won a Nobel Prize …show more content…
Thomson's work has influenced and improved our world greatly. With the invention of the mass spectrometer, we are able to use it to identify chemical substances found in food in the case that it is poisoned and a death can prevented or to catch a criminal. For example, if a substance had been found during murder investigation they would use a mass spectrometer to see what chemical elements were in the substance and determine what the substance is. It also helps the FDA determine what foods are edible or inedible for consumers. The mass spectrometer have many jobs that it could fit into, but they are very expensive to get and have to have the proper authorization to use. Since J.J. Thomson found electrons it gave other scientists the nudge to delve deeper into subatomic particles and discover the last two particles that go with todays model of the nucleus called protons and neutrons. If it wasn’t for those important discoveries we probably wouldn’t have had the inventions we have today without those discoveries. We probably wouldn’t have been able some of our elements because we wouldn’t know the make up of atoms in