1. The Discovery By:Kaitlin Shorr and Tara Monaghan
Radioactivity
The Discovery
By:Kaitlin Shorr and Tara Monaghan

2. Henri Becquerel: Biography
Full Birth Name: Antoine Henri Becquerel
Born: December 15, 1852, in Paris, France
Died: August 25, 1908
Field: Nuclear Science Physics
Occupation: physicist
Education: École Polytechnique, École des Ponts et Chaussées
1897- researched the newly discovered x-rays which led him to the phenomenon of radioactivity.

3. Henri Becquerel’s Scientific Work
Becquerel's earliest work: was with the concern of plane polarization of light, with the phenomenon of phosphorescence and with the absorption of light by crystals (his doctorate thesis).
He also worked on the subject of terrestrial magnetism.
In 1896, his previous work overshadowed his discovery of the phenomenon of natural radioactivity.

4. Henri Becquerel's Discovery
1896: he used naturally fluorescent minerals to study the properties of x-rays.
He exposed potassium uranyl sulfate to sunlight and then placed it on photographic plates wrapped in black paper.
He believed that the uranium absorbed the sun’s energy and then emitted it as x-rays.
A couple days went by and he tested it again by putting the uranium in a closed door with the photographic plate.
It left a clear strong image on the photographic plate.
When his experiment was disproved( 26th and 27th of February) he tested anyway and it proved that uranium emitted radiation with the source of the sun.
He had, after his findings, discovered that uranium could produce a picture on the photographic plate without light, radioactivity.

5. Becquerel Apparatus
used an apparatus to show that the radiation he discovered could not be x-rays.
x-rays are neutral and cannot be bent in a magnetic field.
new radiation was bent by the magnetic field so that the radiation must be charged and different than x-rays.
when different radioactive substances were put in the magnetic field, they deflected in different directions or not at all.
showed that there were three classes of radioactivity: negative, positive, and electrically neutral.

6. Pierre Curie: Biography
Born: On May 15, 1859, in Paris, France
Died: April 19, 1906
Education: Faculty of Sciences at Sorbonne and got his doctorate the year he married Marie.
Before he and his brother, Jacques, distinguished themselves in the study of the properties of crystals.
In 1882, Pierre had headed the laboratory at the Ecole de Physique et de Chimie Industrielle in Paris.

7. Pierre Curie’s Scientific Work
studied the properties of crystals
discovered piezoelectricity
studied the magnetic properties of materials
constructed a torsion balance with a tolerance of 0.01 mg
discovered Weiss-Curie’s Law
discovered Curie temperature

8. Marie Curie: Biography
Born: As Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw, Poland on November 7, 1867
Died: July 4, 1934
Education: spent many years as a teacher and governess; joined her sister, Bronia, in Paris to study mathematics and physics at Sorbonne
earned degrees in both mathematics and physics in 1893 and 94
met physicist, Pierre Curie, and got married (1895)
had two children, Irene (1897) and Eve (1904).

9. Marie Curies’s Discovery
decided to study the mysterious radiation Becquerel had discovered
measured the strength of the radiation emitted from uranium compounds and found it proportional to the uranium content, constant over a long period of time, and uninfluenced by external conditions
detected a similar immutable radiation in the compounds of thorium

10. made the unexpected discovery that uranium pitchblende and the mineral chalcolite emitted about four times as much radiation as could be expected from their uranium content
concluded that pitchblende contains a small amount of an unknown radiating element

11. Pierre Joins Marie in her work
Used an electrometer to search for new substances which uses the level of radioactivity to determine the strength of the current
discovered two new spontaneously radiating elements, which they name polonium and radium.
colleague, Andre Debierne, discovered actinium
began the task of isolating these elements so that their chemical properties could be determined.

12. Awards Won the Curies and Becquerel Marie Curie
Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of radioactivity
Marie Curie
Nobel Prize in chemistry for isolating radium

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