The Plumb Pudding Model

( Web Quest: Atomic Structure )

Henri Becquerels discovery of radiation in 1896 disproved scientists belief that the atom was inadvisable. The following year in 1897, J J Thomson discovered the electron, the first subatomic particle to be discovered. J J Thomson recognized the electron was negatively charged and that they were the same regardless of the element they came from. As electrons had a negative charge, he knew that there had to be some sort of positive charge within the atom. Furthermore electrons were considerably lighter than the atom and therefore there must have been something to account for the rest of its mass. He suggested that the electrons were located with the atom in circular arrays like the plums in a pudding of positive charge. JJ Thomson discovered the electron through the cathode ray experiments. This consisted of 3 experiments designed to identify the electron through its properties. Thomsons first experiment was to investigate whether or not the negative charge could be separated from the cathode rays by magnetism. To observe this he built a cathode ray tube with a metal cylinder on the end. This cylinder had two slits in it, leading to electrometers, which could measure small electric charges. Thomson found that the rays cold be magnetically bent and so would not enter the slit. Therefore, the electrometer registered little charge; he concluded that the negative charge was inseparable from the rays. Thomsons second experiment was to prove that the rays carried a negative charge. His previous experiments did not prove this but he wanted to keep trying because he believed his previous experiment had been flawed because of the traced amounts of gas and a bad vacuum. Thomson made a cathode ray with an almost perfect vacuum. This vacuum had two electrical pates halfway down the tube, one positively charged and one negatively charged. He knew that electrical charges repelled on another, which allowed him to see whether the charge was a positive or negative. He would observe this by looking at the light deflection pattern of the cathode ray. The rays were deflected by the electric charge. He concluded that cathode rays had a negative charge. Although Thomson had performed all these experiments he was still curious to know what the size of the cathode rays was. Thomson used a charge-to-mass ratio because he knew the weight of the cathode ray tube, the heat, the electrical current, and how much heat had been added from the electrons firing. He concluded that the negative cathode ray particles were a thousand times tinier than an atom. Along these lines he proved the existence of subatomic particles. Since these puzzling rays of particles were a lot smaller than atoms Thomson concluded that they were microscopic pieces of atoms.