Ernest Rutherford

Who is the greatest physicist never mentioned by name in the 4th edition of Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology? Russ Hobbie and I allude to Newton, Maxwell, Faraday, Bohr, Einstein, and many others. But a search for the name “Rutherford” comes up empty. In my opinion, Ernest Rutherford is the greatest physicist absent from our book. Ironically, he is also one of my favorite physicists; a colorful character who rivals Faraday as the greatest experimental scientist of all time.

Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia
of Science and Technology,
by Isaac Asimov.

Rutherford (1871–1937) was born in New Zeeland, and attended Cambridge University in England on a scholarship. His early work was on radioactivity, a subject discussed in Chapter 17 of our textbook. Asimov’s Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology states

[Rutherford] was one of those who, along with the Curies, had decided that the rays given off by radioactive substances were of several different kinds. He named the positively charged ones alpha rays and the negatively charged ones beta rays… Between 1906 and 1909 Rutherford, together is his assistant, Geiger, studied alpha particles intensively and proved quite conclusively that the individual particle was a helium atom with its electrons removed.

Rutherford’s interest in alpha particles led to something greater still. In 1906, while still at McGill in Montreal, he began to study how alpha particles are scattered by thin sheets of metal… From this experiment Rutherford evolved the theory of the nuclear atoms, a theory he first announced in 1911…

For working out the theory of radioactive disintegration of elements, for determining the nature of alpha particles, [and] for devising the nuclear atom, Rutherford was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in chemistry, a classification he rather resented, for he was a physicist and tended to look down his nose at chemists…

Rutherford was … the first man ever to change one element into another as a result of the manipulations of his own hands. He had achieved the dream of the alchemists. He had also demonstrated the first man-made “nuclear reaction”…

He was buried in Westminster Abbey near Newton and Kelvin.

Rutherford also measured the size of the nucleus. To explain his alpha particle scattering experiments, he derived his famous scattering formula (see Chapter 4 of Eisberg and Resnick for details). He found that his formula worked well except when very high energy alpha particles are fired at low atomic-number metal sheets. For instance, results began to deviate from his formula when 3 MeV alpha particles are fired at aluminum. The homework problem below explains how to estimate the size of the nucleus from this observation. This problem is based on data shown in Fig. 4-7 of Eisberg and Resnick’s textbook.

Section 17.1

Problem ½  An alpha particle is fired directly at a stationary aluminum nucleus. Assume the only interaction is the electrostatic repulsion between the alpha particle and the nucleus, and the aluminum nucleus is so heavy that it is stationary. Calculate the distance of their closest approach as a function of the initial kinetic energy of the alpha particle. This calculation is consistent with Ernest Rutherford’s alpha particle scattering experiments for energies lower than 3 MeV, but deviates from his experimental results for energies higher than 3 MeV. If the alpha particle enters the nucleus, the nuclear force dominates and the formula you calculated no longer applies. Estimate the radius of the aluminum nucleus.

Rutherford, Simple Genius,
by David Wilson.

To learn more about Ernest Rutherford and his groundbreaking experiments, I recommend the book Rutherford: Simple Genius by David Wilson.

In addition to his fundamental contributions to physics, I have a personal reason for liking Rutherford. Academically speaking, he is my great-great-great-great-grandfather. My PhD advisor was John Wikswo, who got his PhD working under William Fairbank at Stanford. Fairbank got his PhD under Cecil Lane, who studied under Etienne Bieler, who worked for James Chadwick (discoverer of the neutron), who was a student of Rutherford’s.

Ernest Rutherford died (needlessly) on October 19, 1937; 75 years ago today.