Introduction Flashcards
Who discovered radioactivity?
Henri Becquerel
Who was Henri Becquerel?
A French physicist who discovered radioactivity
In what year did Becquerel discover radioactivity?
1896
Describe how Becquerel discovered radioactivity.
3 points
He left uranium salts on a photographic plate wrapped in black paper in the darkness of a drawer in his desk
Radiation was given of by the uranium salts which penetrated the black paper and affected the photogenic plate
Becquerel then investigated this radiation and found that its emission was spontaneous
The radiation given of by uranium salts is spontaneous. What does this mean?
The emission of radiation was a property of the uranium itself and occurred naturally
Define radioactivity.
The spontaneous breaking up of unstable nuclei with the emission of one or more types of radiation
Uranium salts give of rays in a process called radiation, what can the uranium salts be described as during this process?
They are described as radioactive
Who two scientists further investigated the radioactivity of uranium salts in more detail?
Pierre and Marie Curie
What did the Curie’s use to further investigate the radioactivity of uranium salts?
They used pitchblende in their experiments
What is pitchblende?
An ore of uranium which is radioactive
What two new elements did the Curie’s isolate through the recrystallisation of pitchblende?
Polonium
Radium
How did the Curie’s isolate Polonium and Radium?
They recrystallised pitchblende thousands of times i.e. they purified and re-purified pitchblende into smaller and smaller samples of highly radioactive material
In 1903 who won the Nobel Prize in physics?
Henri Becquerel
Pierre Curie
Marie Curie
When did Becquerel and the Curie’s share a Nobel Prize?
They shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 1903
When did Marie Curie win a Nobel Prize on her own?
In 1911 she won the Nobel Prize in chemistry
