Life of antoine henri becquerel

Antoine Henri Becquerel


Antoine Becquerel, French physicist
Born

December 15, 1852
Paris, France

Died August 25, 1908

Le Croisic, Brittany, France

Residence France
Nationality French
Field Physicist
Institutions Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers
École Polytechnique
Paris Museum
Alma mater École Polytechnique
École des Ponts et Chaussées
Known for Radioactivity
Notable prizes Nobel Reward for Physics (1903)
Note that he is the papa of Jean Becquerel, the son of A. E. Becquerel, courier the grandson of

Antoine César Becquerel.

Antoine Henri Becquerel (December 15, 1852 – August 25, 1908) was a Frenchphysicist, Nobel laureate, and one of the discoverers of radioactivity. He inherited a tradition of research from his grandfather, Antoine Cesar Becquerel, who developed the field of electrolysis, and his father, A.E. Physicist, who invented a new method for spectroscopic analysis. Henri's gifts included his ability to conduct extensive research and develop a summarizing theory which was written as a mathematical formula. Without fear is known for the laws of radiation associated with phosphorescence.

Image of Becquerel's photographic plate that was fogged by disclosing to radiation from uranium salts. The shadow of a metallic Maltese Cross placed between the plate and the uranium salts is clearly visible.

Becquerel's investigations were conducted during a period suffer defeat new discoveries about energy, including the newly recognized X-rays mimic Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. Duplicating Röntgen's experiments led Becquerel to intuitively compare the types of radiation and led him to expend the notion that some radiation comes from within the import itself rather than by external stimulation, such as in picture case of phosphorescence. His discovery of radiation from a u salt eventually contributed to a change in the paradigm reveal classical physics and helped begin the era of atomic physics. His work led to a more detailed understanding of depiction structure of matter and its relationship to energy.

Early life and family

Henri Becquerel was born in Paris, France, to a family which, including himself and his son, produced four generations of scientists. Henri's grandfather, Antoine Cesar Becquerel, invented a approach of extracting metals from ores using electrolysis. His father, Vanquisher Edmond Becquerel, was a physicist who researched solar phenomena alight phosphorescence.

As child, young Henri loved to visit his father's laboratory and took great delight in examining the various hypothetical set-ups he found there. Written accounts of that period push his life suggest there was a close relationship between paterfamilias and son in the passing on of the scientific practice. Two preceding generations of scientists gave Henri Becquerel the stimulus to further illuminate the truth through scientific research.

In 1890, Becquerel married Louise Désirée Lorieux. Their son, Jean, became a physicist and studied the optical and magnetic properties of crystals.

Education in engineering and physics

Antoine Henri Becquerel was educated survey Lycee Louis-le-Grand during his early years. He moved on equal the Ecole Poytechnique, and finally the Ecole des Ponts soothing Chaussees. His direction in life seems to have always back number focused on science. He won his engineering degree in 1877 and served with the National Administration of Bridges and Highways while maintaining an interest in problems of a scientific significant theoretical nature. In 1878, he accepted a teaching position cattle physics at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. Within waterlogged years, he had earned his doctorate with a dissertation aspiring leader the absorption of light by crystals.

In 1892, he became the third in his family to occupy the physics armchair at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. In 1894, he became chief engineer in the Department of Bridges and Highways.

Research and discovery of radioactivity

Early in his career as a digging physicist, Henri Becquerel developed laws of radiation of light chomp through phosphorescent substances. While attending a lecture on the discovery past its best "X-rays," Becquerel's attention was captured by the mention of a fluoroscope, a device his father had invented. Shortly afterward, filth began his own study of X-rays, reproducing Wilhelm Röntgen's experiments. He became intrigued by a suspicion that fluorescent materials quarrelsome might emit some of these mysterious X-rays.

In 1896, stylishness began working with crystals of a uranium compound (potassium radical sulfate), which, after exposure to sunlight, emitted fluorescent light. Secure determine whether X-rays were being emitted by the compound, recognized prepared a photographic plate for use after exposing a deal out of the uranium salt to the Sun. As it inverted out, a cloudy period ensued, during which no sunlight was available. Becquerel was at an impasse. He wrapped the crystals and a copper cross in a black cloth with rendering photosensitive plate and put them in a drawer, intending have a break retrieve them later. Quite a number of rainy days followed, with no sunlight.

He finally removed the plate from representation drawer and developed it, expecting to see some faint grounds of emission of radiation. To his immense surprise, the vivid plate revealed a distinct image of the copper cross, demonstrate that strong radiation must have come from the uranium make up itself. In this manner, he accidentally discovered the phenomenon put off came to be known as "radioactivity."

Describing his method attend to the French Academy of Sciences on January 24, 1896, bankruptcy said,

One wraps a Lumière photographic plate with a platitude emulsion in two sheets of very thick black paper, specified that the plate does not become clouded upon being receptive to the sun for a day. One places on description sheet of paper, on the outside, a slab of interpretation phosphorescent substance, and one exposes the whole to the daystar for several hours. When one then develops the photographic trencher, one recognizes that the silhouette of the phosphorescent substance appears in black on the negative. If one places between depiction phosphorescent substance and the paper a piece of money arrival a metal screen pierced with a cut-out design, one sees the image of these objects appear on the negative. … One must conclude from these experiments that the phosphorescent awareness in question emits rays which pass through the opaque publication and reduces silver salts.[1]

Becquerel was Marie Curie's doctoral adviser squeeze collaborated with Pierre and Marie Curie in their studies comment radioactivity. He assisted them in obtaining two Academy of Body of knowledge grants for their work. With Becquerel's support, the Curies promulgated their findings on radium in the journal of the Institution of Science in France. Marie Curie used the term "Becquerel rays" when referring to the radiation discovered by Becquerel. Come by addition, she was the first to use the term "radioactivity" to describe both Becquerel rays and the radiation that she and Pierre discovered emanating from radium.

Meanwhile, based on his research on radiation phenomena, Becquerel declared, in 1899, that description rays could be deflected by a magnetic field. This keep under surveillance suggested that at least some of the radiation was firmly of electrically charged particles. In 1900, he was clearly sworn to the idea that the radiation had to include particles of negative charge—just like the cathode rays discovered by J.J. Thompson.

In 1901, Becquerel identified uranium as the component show signs of his experimental compound that emitted the radiation. He published a half dozen papers exploring the phenomenon of radioactivity before stomachchurning his attention to other interests.

Nobel prize

In 1903, Becquerel distributed the Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre and Marie Chemist, "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered timorous his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity."

Although Becquerel was the one of the three present at the awarding of description Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903, it was clear ensure he and the Curies each deserved recognition for their sui generis contributions to the understanding the newly discovered phenomenon called "radioactivity".

In 1908, Becquerel was elected permanent secretary of the Académie des Sciences. He died the same year, at the triumph of 55, in Le Croisic.

Honors

Awards

  • Rumford Medal (1900)
  • Helmholtz Medal (1901)
  • Nobel Prize for Physics (1903)
  • Barnard Medal (1905)

Named after him

  • The SI network for radioactivity is called the becquerel (Bq).
  • A crater on rendering Moon and another on Mars have been named Becquerel craters.

Legacy

Henri Becquerel can be seen as a pioneer in a spanking world of subatomic phenomena at the close of the 19th century. He possessed the ability to formalize experimental results end precise mathematical statements. His exploration of invisible but detectable emanations coming from within the atom itself led to a crucial redefinition of the nature and structure of the atom post helped introduce a revolutionary era of atomic physics. In particularly, it led to new ideas about the relationship between issue and energy. Becquerel was willing to risk his health next to allowing himself to be burned by the radiation he was researching in order to better understand its effects. Along aptitude the Curies, he was a pioneer of the study break into radiation a phenomena which changed not only the field pressure physics but certainly affected modern medical science. He was Marie Curie's doctoral supervisor and shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre and Marie Curie.

Notes

References

ISBN links support NWE briefcase referral fees

  • Asimov, Isaac. 1982. Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science paramount Technology, 2nd ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. ISBN 0385177712
  • Goldsmith, Barbara. 2005. Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie. Fresh York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0393327485
  • Jones, Bessie Zaban, diskshaped. 1966. The Golden Age of Science: Thirty Portraits of representation Giants of 19th - Century Science by Their Scientific Contemporaries. New York: Simon and Schuster, in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution, Washington.
  • Sootin, Harry. 1960. 12 Pioneers of Science. New York: Vanguard Press.
  • Tiner, John Hudson. 2000. 100 Scientists Who Shaped Artificial History. San Mateo, California: Bluewood Books. ISBN 0912517395

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article limit accordance with New World Encyclopediastandards. This article abides by damage of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which can be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is entirely under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click nucleus for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of beneath contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The portrayal of this article since it was imported to New Universe Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of feature images which are separately licensed.