UCSB Science Line
Sponge Spicules Nerve Cells Galaxy Abalone Shell Nickel Succinate X-ray Lens Lupine
UCSB Science Line
Home
How it Works
Ask a Question
Search Topics
Webcasts
Our Scientists
Science Links
Contact Information
Who first discovered the proton?
Question Date: 2013-09-06
Answer 1:

Since a hydrogen atom is basically just a proton with an electron, and a hydrogen nucleus IS a proton, it's difficult to say exactly who discovered it because doing so gets caught up with asking who discovered the element and atomic nature of hydrogen. The person I'd give credit, though, would be Ernest Rutherford, who discovered that atoms of elements other than hydrogen contained hydrogen nuclei, which implies that whatever hydrogen is, it's one of the building blocks of the other elements as well as itself.


Answer 2:

I believe it was Ernest Rutherford who kind of discovered the proton. He did many experiments on radioactivity and found that there was a positively charged thing, the proton. He named it from the Greek work "protos" which means "first".



Click Here to return to the search form.

University of California, Santa Barbara Materials Research Laboratory National Science Foundation
This program is co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and UCSB School-University Partnerships
Copyright © 2020 The Regents of the University of California,
All Rights Reserved.
UCSB Terms of Use