Pascal - Rutherford

PASCAL, BLAISE

     Born 1623 in Clermont-Ferrand, France. He proved how barometers work. Died 1662 aged 39.
     Pascal was a mathematical genius. By the age of 12 he had worked out by himself the first 32 theorems of Euclid. At 16 he published a geometry book about parts of cones called conic sections. At 16 Pascal had invented a calculating machine for adding and subtracting. Unfortunately it was too expensive to make and was never used.
     Pascal was very much interested in Torricelli's work with barometers. Pasacl proved that the atmosphere really has weight by sending his brother-in-law up a mountain with a barometer. The level of mercury drooped in the tube the higher he went.
     Ten years before his death Pascal became a devout Catholic, abandoned work and devoted his time to writing about religion and philosophy.

RÖNTGEN, WILHELM CORNAD

     Born 1845 in Remscheild, Germany. He discovered x-rays, one of the most powerful tools to help doctors see inside the human body. Died 1923 aged 77.
     In 1895 Röntgen was doing some experiments in which he applied a strong electric current to some metal plates inside a glass tube from which most of the air had been removed. His tube was covered with black cardboard and the room was dark, but to his amazement, he noticed that a chemical on the bench across the room was glowing. After many different experiments he decided that the tube must be giving out rays that went through both the glass and the cardboard. They were so mysterious that he called them X- Rays. The letter x often means unknown. Nowadays most people have had an X- Ray at the hospital or the dentist and so they have lost some of their mystery. It was not until about 1910 that scientists showed that they were electromagnetic waves like light but with a much a shorter wavelength.

RUTHERFORD, SIR ERNEST

     Born 1871 near Nelson, New Zealand. Revealed the structure of atoms and heralded the nuclear age we live in. Died 1937 aged 66
     Rutherford came from a large family of eleven children and grow up on his family's small farm in New Zealand. He did very well at school and was especially good at mathematics. After join to university in New Zealand he went to Cambridge in England.
     At Cambridge he began work on the exciting new subject of radioactivity. He discovered that radioactive substances produce three different types of radiation. This was an especially exciting time for scientists, because they were beginning to study the inside of atoms. Rutherford performed some very important experiments, which showed that in the centre of an atom there is a tiny, heavy blob, the nucleus, and that most of the atom consists of empty space.
     Rutherford continued to study atoms and he gathered round him in his laboratory in Cambridge other brilliant scientists who were fascinated by atoms and the particles found inside them, scientists such as Chadwick and Cockcroft. The work of these and others, like Marie and Pierre Curie, Enrico Fermi and Niels Bohr began a new age of Physics: the 'nuclear age'. It has produced radiation for treating cancer, nuclear power stations which generate electricity and also, sadly, nuclear weapons.

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