The discovery of the elecron, proton and neutron

... THE DISCOVERY OF THE ELECTRON, PROTON AND NEUTRON For thousands of years it was thought that the atom was the basic unit of matter, and more importantly the smallest unit of a chemical element. The idea of the atom came from Greek Philosophers and was derived from the Greek word atomos, meaning indivisible. Through experimentation and scientific theories during the 19th Century it was found that the atom had an internal structure and was therefore made up of other, smaller particles. We now know that the atom is made up of three fundamental particles; the electron, proton and neutron, which, in themselves are made up of even smaller particles, however the discovery of these three particles are at the beginning of modern science and is the subject of this essay. Until 1932, the atom was known to consist of a positively charged nucleus surrounded by enough negatively charged electrons to make the

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