In chemistry, the whole number rule states that the masses of the isotopes are whole number multiples of the mass of the hydrogen atom. The rule is a modified version of Prout's hypothesis proposed in 1815, to the effect that atomic weights are multiples of the weight of the hydrogen atom. It is also known as the Aston whole number rule after Francis W. Aston who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1922 "for his discovery, by means of his mass spectrograph, of isotopes, in a large number of non-radioactive elements, and for his enunciation of the whole-number rule."
The law of definite proportions was formulated by Joseph Proust around 1800 and states that all samples of a chemical compound will have the same elemental composition by mass. The atomic theory of John Dalton expanded this concept and explained matter as consisting of discrete atoms with one kind of atom for each element combined in fixed proportions to form compounds.
In 1815, William Prout reported on his observation that the atomic weights of the elements were whole multiples of the atomic weight of hydrogen. He then hypothesized that the hydrogen atom was the fundamental object and that the other elements were a combination of different numbers of hydrogen atoms.
In 1920, Francis W. Aston demonstrated through the use of a mass spectrometer that apparent deviations from Prout's hypothesis are predominantly due to the existence of isotopes. For example, Aston discovered that neon has two isotopes with masses very close to 20 and 22 as per the whole number rule, and proposed that the non-integer value 20.2 for the atomic weight of neon is due to the fact that natural neon is a mixture of about 90% neon-20 and 10% neon-22). A secondary cause of deviations is the binding energy or mass defect of the individual isotopes.
Discovery of the neutron
During the 1920s, it was thought that the atomic nucleus was made of protons and electrons, which would account for the disparity between the atomic number of an atom and its atomic mass.
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The atomic mass (ma or m) is the mass of an atom. Although the SI unit of mass is the kilogram (symbol: kg), atomic mass is often expressed in the non-SI unit dalton (symbol: Da) – equivalently, unified atomic mass unit (u). 1 Da is defined as of the mass of a free carbon-12 atom at rest in its ground state. The protons and neutrons of the nucleus account for nearly all of the total mass of atoms, with the electrons and nuclear binding energy making minor contributions.
In chemistry, the law of definite proportions, sometimes called Proust's law or the law of constant composition, states that a given chemical compound always contains its component elements in fixed ratio (by mass) and does not depend on its source and method of preparation. For example, oxygen makes up about 8/9 of the mass of any sample of pure water, while hydrogen makes up the remaining 1/9 of the mass: the mass of two elements in a compound are always in the same ratio.
Atomic theory is the scientific theory that matter is composed of particles called atoms. The concept that matter is composed of discrete particles is an ancient idea, but gained scientific credence in the 18th and 19th centuries when scientists found it could explain the behaviors of gases and how chemical elements reacted with each other. By the end of the 19th century, atomic theory had gained widespread acceptance in the scientific community. The term "atom" comes from the Greek word atomos, which means "uncuttable".
New development steps of AFSI-ASCOT based synthetic neutron diagnostics and validation at JET are reported in this contribution. Synthetic neutron diagnostics are important not only in existing tokamaks, where they are used to interpret experimental data, ...
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The measured D-D neutron rate of NBI heated JET baseline and hybrid H-modes in Deuterium is found to be between approximately 50% and 100% of the neutron rate expected from the TRANSP code, depending on plasma parameters. A number of candidate explanations ...
The measured D-D neutron rate of neutral beam heated JET baseline and hybrid H-modes in deuterium is found to be between approximately 50% and 100% of the neutron rate expected from the TRANSP code, depending on the plasma parameters. A number of candidate ...