Thomson
In Thomson’s experiment he used a Crookes Tube, which is
kind of like an old-school TV tube, to discover something new about atoms. He found that he could bend the ray in a Crookes
Tube using a magnet. The ray bent
towards the + side and away from the – side.
Because opposite charges attract and like charges repel, Thomson said
the beam must have a – charge.
Because Thomson knew the strength of the magnetic field, the
deflection of the beam and the speed of the particles in the beam, he could use
an algebra equation to find the mass of the particles. The mass turned out to be about 2000 times
smaller than the lightest atom, hydrogen.
Thomson had discovered something smaller than an atom, the electron!
Thomson’s evidence led him to see atoms not as solid,
featureless spheres, but as a spongy, positively-charged material with
negatively charged electrons stuck in it, like blueberries in a blueberry
muffin.
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