Who Is Ernest Rutherford?

Ernest Rutherford was born in rural Spring Grove, on the South Island of New Zealand on August 30, 1871. He was the fourth of 12 children, and the second son. His father, James, had little education and struggled to support the large family on a flax-miller’s income. Ernest’s mother, Martha, worked as a schoolteacher. She believed that knowledge was power, and placed a strong emphasis on her children’s education.
At age of ten at Foxhill School Ernest Rutherford received his first science book. One of project was had many suggested experiments but this one, on using the speed of sound to determine the distance to a firing cannon, this gave him the knowledge to surprise his family by estimating the distance to a lighting flash. Perhaps this book gave him so much inspiration, which inspired him to make a miniature cannon out of a hat peg, a marble and blasting powder. The cannon exploded, but gladly Ernest didn't get injured from this explosion.

Ernest Rutherford attended the free state schools through 1886, when he won a scholarship to attend Nelson Collegiate School. In 1890 Rutherford …show more content…
Rutherford figured out that a magnetized needle a lot of its magnetization in a magnetic field produced by an alternating current. By this magnet needle made an detector of electromagnetic waves. Rutherford's Gold Foil Experiment involved a deflection of alpha particles through a thin sheet of gold. The deflection of the alpha particles occurred because the charged nucleus of the gold atoms changed the trajectory of the alpha particles. This observation was inconsistent with the current model of the atom however Rutherford received an Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908 for his discovery of radioactive.In 1917, Rutherford was the first person to successfully split an atom using nitrogen and alpha particles. This reaction led to his discovery of protons, which are contained in the atomic