What is Matter

If you took a piece of paper, and ripped it

in half.

Take one of the halves, and rip it in half.

Repeat this again & again & again…

At what point would you find that you couldn’t

subdivide the material anymore?

What would you have in your hand at this point?

A very good reference for the things we are going to cover is at:
http://particleadventure.org/particleadventure/frameless/sitemap.html
 What is matter ?
 We are ! And lots of other things
around us…

Almost everything around you is

matter…

But, what we’re really interested

in is:

What is matter at its most

fundamental level ?
 What are we made of ?
 We’re made of cells which
contain DNA.
- Different cells serve different
functions in your body.

 The cells contain a nucleus,

which contains your DNA !

 And the DNA is a wonderful,

complex chain of molecules
which contains your genetic
code!

 But, what are molecules

made of ? 0.0002”
 The Elements
Molecules are complex structures of the elements
 But what’s inside “an element”
For each element, we can associate an atom.

Prior to ~1905, nobody really knew:

“ What does the inside of an atom look like ? ”

Early
“Plum-Pudding”
Model Corpuscles
(Electrons)

Positive
Charge
(uniformly
The positive charge is spread
distributed) out like a “plum-pudding”
 A digression on radiation
Radiation: The process of emitting
energy in the form of waves or
particles.

Where does radiation come from?

Radiation is generally produced
when particles interact or decay.

A large contribution of the radiation

on earth is from the sun (solar) or
from radioactive isotopes of the
elements (terrestrial).

Radiation is going through you at

this very moment!
http://www.atral.com/U238.html
 Isotopes
What’s an isotope?
Two or more varieties of an element
having the same number of protons but
different number of neutrons. Certain
isotopes are “unstable” and decay to
lighter isotopes or elements.

Deuterium and tritium are isotopes of

hydrogen. In addition to the 1 proton,
they have 1 and 2 additional neutrons in
the nucleus respectively*.
Another prime example is
Uranium-238, or just 238U.
 Radioactivity
By ~1900, it was known that certain isotopes emit
penetrating rays. Three types of radiation were known:

1) Alpha particles ()

2) Beta particles ()

3) Gamma-rays ()
 Where do these ‘particles’ come
from ?

These particles generally come

from the nuclei of atomic isotopes
which are not stable.

 The decay chain of Uranium

produces all three of these forms
of radiation.

 Let’s look at them in more detail…

Note: This is the
atomic weight, which
is the number of
Alpha Particles ()
protons plus neutrons

Radium Radon
+ n p
p n
R226 Rn222
He)
88 protons 86 protons 2 protons
138 neutrons 136 neutrons 2 neutrons

The alpha-particle  is a Helium nucleus (charge = +2)

It’s the same as the element Helium, but without the

electrons !
 Beta Particles ()
Carbon Nitrogen + e- + 
C14 N14

6 protons 7 protons electron

8 neutrons 7 neutrons (beta-particle)

n  p + e- +  More on this
bugger later…
The electron emerges with relatively high energy in this
“disintegration” (decay) process.
We see that one of the neutrons from the C14 nucleus
“converted” into a proton, and an electron was ejected.
The remaining nucleus contains 7p and 7n, which is a nitrogen
nucleus. In symbolic notation, the following process occurred:
 Gamma particles ()
In much the same way that electrons in atoms can be in an
excited state, so can a nucleus.

Neon Neon
Ne20 Ne20 +

10 protons 10 protons gamma

10 neutrons 10 neutrons
(in excited state) (lowest energy state)

A gamma is a high energy light particle (short for gamma ray).

It is NOT visible to your naked eye because it is not in

the visible part of the EM spectrum.
 Gamma Rays

Neon
Ne20

Neon
Ne20 +

The gamma from nuclear decay

is in the X-ray/ Gamma ray
part of the EM spectrum
(very energetic!)
 How do these particles differ ?

Particle Mass Charge

Gamma () 0 0

Electron mass is
Beta ()
~1/2000th of -1
(Electron)
a proton’s mass
~4 times a proton’s mp = proton mass
mn = neutron mass
Alpha () mass (since mp mn). +2

Back to “Structure of Matter”

 Scattering Experiments
If the plum-pudding model was right, then matter
is “soft”. There’s no “central, hard core”…

Alpha
Ernest Rutherford
particle 1871-1937
source
 Awarded the
Nobel Prize in 1908

Calculations, based on the known laws of electricity and magnetism

showed that the heavy alpha particles should be only slightly deflected
by this “plum-pudding” atom…
 Au Contraire
Contrary to expectations, Rutherford found that a significantly
large fraction (~1/8000) of the alpha particles “bounced back” in
the same direction in which they came…The theoretical expectation
was that fewer than 1/10,000,000,000 should do this ???
Gold foil



Huh ???

In Rutherford’s words…
“It was quite the most incredible event that ever happened to me in
my life. It was as if you fired a 15-inch naval shell at a piece of tissue
paper and the shell came right back and hit you.”
 The (only) interpretation
The atom must have a solid core capable of imparting large
electric forces onto an incoming (charged) particle.






 The Modern Atom
Atom: the smallest particle of an element that can exist either
alone or in combination
Electrons Nucleus

2x10-13 cm

0.0000000002 cm
(2 x 10-10 cm)
 Atoms and Space
Approximately what fraction of the volume of an atom does the
nucleus consume?

Assume that an atom can be approximated by a sphere with a

radius given by the electrons orbit radius?

Use the following data.

• The radius of the nucleus is ~ 2x10-13 cm.

• The electrons orbits at a radius of ~ 2x10-10 cm
• Ignore the electrons size, as it is unimportant.
• The volume of a sphere is (4/3)R3.
 Answer…

a) First find the volume of the entire atom

Volume = (4/3)*2x10-10)3 = 3.4 x 10-29 cm3

b) Now find the volume which contains the nucleus.

Volume = (4/3)*2x10-13)3 = 3.4 x 10-38 cm3

c) Now compute the fraction:

Fraction = (3.4 x 10-38 / 3.4 x 10-29 ) = 0.000000001

In other words, 99.99999999% of an atom is empty space !!!

 Next time…

What’s inside the nucleus ?

What’s filling all the space ?