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Asked by: Patrizia Lyndyaev
science chemistryWhat did becquerel contribute to the atomic theory?
Similarly, what is the contribution of Henri Becquerel?
Henri Becquerel, in full Antoine-Henri Becquerel, (born December 15, 1852, Paris, France—died August 25, 1908, Le Croisic), French physicist who discovered radioactivity through his investigations of uranium and other substances. In 1903 he shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with Pierre and Marie Curie.
In this way, what did Henri Becquerel discover?
When Henri Becquerel investigated the newly discovered X-rays in 1896, it led to studies of how uranium salts are affected by light. By accident, he discovered that uranium salts spontaneously emit a penetrating radiation that can be registered on a photographic plate.
Radioactivity, Polonium and Radium Curie conducted her own experiments on uranium rays and discovered that they remained constant, no matter the condition or form of the uranium. The rays, she theorized, came from the element's atomic structure. This revolutionary idea created the field of atomic physics.