A: Ask your Mom.
Atomic nucleus recoilIn 1904, a letter in the journal Nature*, Harriet Brooks pointed out a peculiar type of volatility shown by an active deposit of radium immediately after its removal from the emanation. Hahn and Russ and Markower later showed (1909) that “the effect was due to the recoil of radium B from the active surface accompanying the expulsion of an alpha-particle from Radium A. This method of the separation of the elements by recoils ultimately proved of much importance in disentangling the complicated series of changes in the radioactive bodies,”according to Ernest Rutherford (1933). Thus, Harriet Brooks was probably the first person to observe the recoil of the atomic nucleus as nuclear particles were emitted during radioactive decay.(*vol. 70, p. 270) |
