Political Science 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 32: South African Class 19C 4-8-2, Electric Potential Energy, Elastic Collision
2 Oct 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
During all the research on cathode rays, several scientists missed their chance at some glory. Hertz narrowly missed discovering x-rays during his photoelectric effect research. Smith came close to the discovery, but he threw the chance away when he asked his assistant to move his photographic plates into another room as his cathode ray tube seemed to ruin the plates. Wilhelm roentgen (1845 1923) finally made the discovery in: barium platinocyanide is a fluorescent material which will emit visible light when illuminated with ultraviolet light. He noticed that a piece of barium platinocyanide glowed when in the region of an operating cathode ray tube. Roentgen immediately began to investigate and discovered that the tube was emitting some unknown radiation. Roentgen called the radiation an x-ray (unknown ray). Roentgen discovered that x-rays passed through some materials but were stopped by other materials. This discovery was immediately put to use as a medical aid.
