Chadwick, James

Lead Author: Cutler J. Cleveland (other articles)
Article Topics: Energy people and Environmental chemistry
This article has been reviewed and approved by the following Topic Editor: Tom Lawrence (other articles)
Last Updated: August 3, 2007

James Chadwick (1891-1974), an English physicist, discovered the neutron in 1932 and subsequently published a paper titled Possible Existence of Neutron. In 1935, he received the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the neutron. Werner Heisenberg soon showed that the neutron was a unique particle—the third piece of the atom to be found. This new idea dramatically changed the picture of the atom and accelerated discoveries in atomic physics. Physicists discovered that the neutron made an ideal "bullet" for bombarding other nuclei. Before long, neutron bombardment was applied to the uranium atom, splitting its nucleus and releasing the huge amounts of energy predicted by Einstein's equation E = mc2.

Further Reading

Citation
Cleveland, Cutler (Lead Author); Tom Lawrence (Topic Editor). 2007. "Chadwick, James." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth December 8, 2006; Last revised August 3, 2007; Retrieved November 20, 2008]. <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Chadwick,_James>
Editing this Article
EoE Authors can click here to access this article within the editor wiki

If you are an expert, but not yet an Author, click here
CITE
EMAIL
PRINT