sir ernest rutherford

A biography about Sir Ernest Rutherford

Sir Ernest Rutherford

Sir Ernest Rutherford was born in Nelson on August the 30th 1871.  He was a Scientist who worked many years learning about molecules and atoms.  Ernest Rutherford was named the “father of nuclear physics” for being the first person to split the atom, becoming a world wide legend. He also won a Nobel prize in 1908 for this achievement.

His family

Sir Ernest Rutherford was born into a large family with 5 brothers and 5 sisters. Martha (Ernest’s mother) and James (Ernest’s father) were very poor when Ernest was little, they were so poor that Ernest’s father (James) and his stepfather had to get a job at a flax mill just to afford the basics (toilet paper, clothes) and only came back on Saturday nights.

 

His early life

Ernest always tested and tried to experiment objects in his house. Ernest begged his father every night when he was young to disable/take out all the parts in a clock and let him put them back in the same spot.  He always promised that he wouldn’t break the clock . at first Ernest needed help rearranging the pieces but eventually he could easily do it. He could even make his own functional cameras and started using them around the house.  

Ernest’s studying life

When Ernest Rutherford finished studying at trinity college and received his scholarship in 1887, he later moved to Canada to study about physics, he later moved to England/UK/Britain in 1907 and become a real scientist. A year later Ernest Rutherford claimed his first Nobel prize for his “investigations into the disintegration of the elements. (But that’s not all he did).

Some time later in 1917 Ernest Rutherford split  the atom. Sadly on  August the 19 of October 1937 Sir Ernest Rutherford had passed away, and the only way to remember him was to put a picture of his face on the $100 note.

An atom in real life.

Sir Ernest Rutherford on the 100$ note.

by:Almas khan