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A simple cathode ray tube. |
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Thomson in his office.
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homson's speculation was not unambiguously supported by his experiments. It took more experimental work by Thomson and others to sort out the confusion. The atom is now known to contain other particles as well. Yet Thomson's bold suggestion that cathode rays were material constituents of atoms turned out to be correct. The rays are made up of electrons: very small, negatively charged particles that are indeed fundamental parts of every atom. |
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"Could anything
at first sight seem more impractical than a body which is so small that
its mass is an insignificant fraction of the mass of an atom of hydrogen?" -- J.J. Thomson.
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odern ideas and technologies based on the electron, leading to television and the computer and much else, evolved through many difficult steps. Thomson's careful experiments and adventurous hypotheses were followed by crucial experimental and theoretical work by many others in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and elsewhere. These physicists opened for us a new perspective--a view from inside the atom. |
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