– early experiments examining the nature of cathode rays

Cathode rays:
Cathode rays are beams of electrons. An apparatus called
cathode ray tube was used in conjunction with many
experiments to understand the nature of cathode rays.
Cathode ray tubes are partially evacuated tubes of glass.
They are also called Crookes tubes, named after William
Crookes, the guy who invented them. Cathode ray tubes are
very similar to discharge tubes, in that they have a cathode
and anode connected to a high voltage supply, they would
facilitate the behaviour of an electron when travelling at high
velocities. The only difference is that cathode ray tubes allow
the electrons to reach higher velocities by the time they reach
the anode as compared to the gas discharge tubes. This is
because the cathode tube had no gas (very small amount
that it’s negligible) to obstruct the electron’s path. Cathode
ray tubes also had fluorescent material behind the anode.
The cathode was a heated negatively charged metal plate
that provided thermionic emission. Meaning the electrons on
the cathode metal plate were heated to the point where they
broke free. The high potential difference provided by the high
voltage supply made it possible for the electrons to travel at
high speeds. Some electrons would travel past the anode
and into the back wall of the cathode tube and cause the
glass wall to fluoresce, this is because the high energy carried by the electrons were exciting the electrons in the
glass wall and causing green-ish light to be emitted. In another experiment, the anode was made from a shin sheet
of aluminium in the shape of a maltese cross. After firing the cathode ray tube, the back had a shadow of the
maltese cross. In another experiment a paddle wheel was set, again after firing the cathode ray the paddle
wheel would spin and move in the direction of the cathode ray.

– Thomson’s charge-to-mass experiment

Thomson conducted an experiment where he placed an electric field in

the tube. He saw that when firing the cathode ray. It would deflect
upwards toward the positive plate. He also found out that, when passing
an electron through a magnetic field *the ray would undergo uniform
circular motion. When he turned on the magnetic field he saw that the
effects would reverse. He later found out that by making the magnetic field
equal the electric field the ray would travel in a straight line.
 When both the electric and magnetic fields were equal, the ray travelled in a straight line. Therefore,
the velocity of the electron could be found using this relationship on the left.

Thomson could analyse

the radius of the electron
under the influence of a
magnetic field by equating
the electron’s force in a
magnetic field to the force of uniform circular
motion (centripetal force).

Substituting v from the left equation into the right equation gives us
the exact value of the charge to mass ratio (e/m).

After conducting this experiment, Thomson discovered that the ratio is -1.759 x1011 C/kg

– Millikan's oil drop experiment (ACSPH026)

Milikans’s oil drop experiment

enabled him to find the charge of a
single electron. Millikan built two
chambers, at the top he sprayed oil
through an atomiser and allowed the droplets to fall through
a small gap by the effect of gravity into a second chamber.
The second chamber had an electric field running through.
As the oil droplets fell through, X-rays ionised molecules of
gas within the second chamber by knocking electrons off the
gas atoms, these electrons would be donated into the oil
droplets, making the droplets negatively charged. After the
droplet’s were charged, he applied an electric field where the
top plate was positively charged and the bottom negatively charged. He then adjusted the strength of
the electric field so that the force due to attraction on the droplets (upwards) matched the force of the
gravity (downwards) to keep the oil droplets suspended.

The strength of the electric field could be calculated by dividing the

voltage (V) which he knew, by the distance between the plates (d)
which he measured. Therefore, the force experienced by the electron could be
calculated by multiplying the electric field strength by (q). Since the electric
field strength equaled the force due to gravity, the relationship became mg
= qV/d and rearranged into q = mgd/V, where m is the mass of the droplet;
g is 9.8m/s2 and d is the distance between the plates; and V is the voltage.
Millikan then determined the mass of the droplet by switching off the
electric field and observing the droplets at terminal velocity. After
measuring the terminal velocity, Milikan acquired the volume of the
droplets, and since he knew the density of the oil used he was able to calculate the mass of the droplets.
Substituting the mass back into the previous formula, Millikan was able to calculate the charge of each oil droplet. After
repeating the experiments so many times, he found that the charges of the droplets were quantised, meaning the different
charges were due to the specific number of electrons within the droplet,
that meant they were all multiples of a very small value, and that value
was the charge of the electron.

Millikan found out that

small value by finding the smallest difference between his results. Which
he found to be -1.5924 x10-19 C

Combining this value with Thomson’s charge to mass ratio enabled

Milikan to find the mass of an electron.

Where

– the Geiger-Marsden experiment and Rutherford’s model

Limitation of the rutherford model
Geiger and Mardssen wanted to investigate
the structure of the atom. They did this by
firing a beam of alpha particles into a gold
foil. They hypothesised that most of the
alpha particles would pass through and if
there were any deflections, it would be small
due to the mass of the alpha particles
compared to the electrons mass.

When they conducted that experiment, they saw that the majority of the particles passed through, however the deflections
were at extreme angles. This showed that the Thomson model
was flawed. In that while the atom was indeed mostly empty
space. There was a small concentrated mass in the centre of the
atom. By looking at the deflections, they also hypothesised that
whatever mass concentrated at the centre was a positive charge
due to the extreme deflection of some of the alpha particles.
Therefore a new model was constructed, where the majority of the
atom is empty space, a positive mass was concentrated at the
centre and electrons circled the nucleus.
Limitation of the rutherford model
The Rutherford model failed to explain the exact orbiting path of the electrons. It also failed to
explain how the electrons remained in stable orbit and did not crash into the nucleus. Also
contradicted Maxwell’s electromagnetism theory, since the electrons experienced centripetal
acceleration and would therefore emit EMR until crashing into the nucleus. Furthermore, it
failed to explain the cause of the positive charge in the nucleus.
– Chadwick’s discovery of the neutron (ACSPH026)
Rutherford discovered that the nucleus was composed of protons by firing alpha particles into samples of Nitrogen gas
allowing for the following reaction to take place.

He performed experiments similar to those of Thomson’s to find the charge to mass ratio of the proton samples he had
and discovered that they had positive charge but a mass greater than the electron’s. However, while the proton accounted
for the charge in the nucleus, they did not account for the mass of the nucleus. He proposed that some electrons resided
in the nucleus and combined with protons to produce neutral particles. For example, an alpha particle had 4 protons and 2
electrons. Two of the protons would combine with the
electron to form two neutral particles to provide the mass
and the remaining two protons provided the charge of the
alpha particle. However, at the time, the calculation did
not hold true for some nuclei, and there was no evidence
to support the theory. Bothe and Becker conducted an
experiment where they projected alpha particles into a
sheet of beryllium and produced an unknown neutral
radiation. This was assumed to be gamma radiation as it
contained high amounts of energy. To confirm this, Juliot and Curie
modified said experiment by placing a block of paraffin wax behind the
sheet of beryllium and a detection device behind the paraffin wax block.
When the alpha particles were fired again, they observed that the
paraffin wax produced protons. After analysing the energy of the
protons, it showed that a minimum of 50MeV was required to dislodge
the protons of the wax block. Yet, the energy of the alpha particles was
5MeV. Another experiment showed that ‘this’ radiation did not create a
photoelectric effect when projected on a piece of metal. So they
concluded that this radiation was neutral and was not gamma radiation. By applying the law of conservation of
momentum and conservation of energy, Chadwick determined the mass of a neutron. Chadwick reasoned that a
neutral particle could eject a proton from the paraffin by imparting its momentum onto it (this explanation accounted for the
kinetic energies of protons measured in the experiment). By applying these laws and analysing the energy and
momentum of the protons, he was able to derive the mass of the neutron, which was a little bigger than that of a proton.

Limitations of Bohr Model

The key limitation of the Bohr Model are:
1. Its inability to to predict the spectra emissions of atoms other than hydrogen
2. The variance in density of some spectra lines as compared to others
3. Inability to explain the phenomenon known as the Hyperfine Spectral Lines, which is the splitting of the spectral
lines when examined closely
4. Inability to explain Zeeman Effect, the splitting of spectral lines when run through by a magnetic field
5. Lack of reasoning for the stability of an electron’s orbit