Question #03bc3

1 Answer
Mar 12, 2017

Rutherford bombarded nitrogen gas with α particles.

Explanation:

He discovered the nuclear reaction:

#""_7^14"N" +"" _2^4"He" → ""_8^17"O" + ""_1^1"H"#

He recognized the hydrogen nuclei (protons) because he had prepared seen them in earlier experiments.

Rutherford guessed that hydrogen nuclei were a part of nitrogen nuclei and probably other nuclei as well.

Rutherford proposed that a hydrogen nucleus was a fundamental building block of all nuclei.

He called this particle the proton (Greek protos = "first").