Artificial Transmutations

Descriptive Essay # 116710

Physics > Nuclear

Looks at the history of the artificial transmutations of nuclei.

1,980 words () | 13 sources | APA | 2009 | United States

Published on: Oct 19, 2009

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the process of transmutation and defines it as the transformation of an atom of one element into another by natural radioactive disintegration or nuclear bombardment. The paper describes the work on transmutation of several physicists, including Ernest Rutherford, who achieved the first artificial transmutation in 1919 by converting nitrogen atoms into oxygen atoms. The paper also relates the steps that led to the ability to split the nucleus of an atom in an organized and controlled process thus confirming the scientific predictions that arose from the relativity theory and quantum mechanics.

From the Paper:

"In the late 1920s Ernest Walton won a research scholarship to work with Rutherford at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England. It was to him that Rutherford first assigned the task in 1927 of constructing a device capable of accelerating electrons to very high speeds. This project was a success but the achieved speeds still remained too slow. In 1929, John Cockcroft joined Walton in this project and together they worked to create an apparatus that accelerated positively charged particles to high velocities."

Sample of Sources Used:

Brown, Theodore L., H.Eugene LeMay, Jr., Bruce E. Bursten. Chemistry: The Central Science. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1997.
"Becquerel, Henri". 26 November 2006. http://www.britannica.com/nobel/micro/59_13.html
Dahl, Per F. From Nuclear Transmutation to Nuclear Fission, 1932-1939, Bristok UK, 2002
Eve, A. S., Chadwick, J. (1938) "Lord Rutherford, 1871-1937", Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society (1932-1954), Volume 2, Number 6. http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/media/56we0cgmrndtnmec9j4k/contributions/w/7/6/4/w7647170205019w8.pdf
Gallant, Roy A. The Ever Changing Atom. Hong Kong: Benchmark Books, 2000.