Remembering today on his birth anniversary
Sir Joseph John Thomson or J.J. Thomson 🙏🙏
J.J. Thomson is credited with the discovery of the electron, the negatively-charged particle in the atom. He is known for the Thomson atomic theory. Many scientists studied the electric discharge of a cathode ray tube. It was Thomson’s interpretation that was important. He took the deflection of the rays by the magnets and charged plates as evidence of ‘bodies much smaller than atoms’. Thomson calculated these bodies had a large charge to mass ratio and he estimated the value of the charge itself. In 1904, Thomson proposed a model of the atom as a sphere of positive matter with electrons positioned based on electrostatic forces. So, he not only discovered the electron but determined it was a fundamental part of an atom.
Notable awards Thomson received include:
Nobel Prize in Physics (1906) “in recognition of the great merits of his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases”
Knighted (1908)
Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge (1884-1918)🙏🙏