Question

Explain the discovery of electrons?

Answer 1

Electrons:

• They are the negatively charged subatomic particles that were discovered by scientist J.J. Thomson in the cathode ray-discharge tube experiment.

J.J. Thomson's Cathode Ray Experiment:

• In this experiment, he used a special hard, cylindrical glass tube known as a discharge tube that consists of two, metal plates.
• These metal plates were called electrodes, each sealed at the two ends of the tube.
• These metal plates are connected to the terminals of a high-voltage battery.
• The metal connected to the positive terminal is called the anode and the metal plate connected to the negative terminal is called the cathode.
• A vacuum pump is connected to one side of the tube to lower the pressure inside the tube.
• Very high voltage electricity through the discharge tube was passed at very low pressure.

Observations:

• From the experiment, he observed that a continuous beam of rays was emitted.
• A green fluorescent glow was observed at the end of the tube.
• They were found moving from the cathode region to the anode region.

This proved that these rays consisted of negatively charged particles and these particles were called electrons.