Question

Question 1
What are canal rays?

Answer 1

E. Goldstein in 1886 discovered the presence of new radiations in a gas discharge and called them canal rays.

• Canal rays are positively charged radiations consisting of particles which have a charge equal in magnitude but opposite in sign to that of an electron.
• They are a beam of positive ions that are created by certain types of gas discharge tubes.
• Canal rays will depend upon the nature of gas that is present in the discharge tube.
• The mass of a canal ray particle is 2000 times that of the electron. These particles are known as protons.
• The charge to the ratio of mass for the ray particles was different for different gases.
  
• Canal rays have a straight path.
• Canal rays are deflected by both electric and magnetic fields because they are charged.