Frederick Soddy facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Frederick Soddy
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Soddy in 1921
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| Born | 2 September 1877 |
| Died | 22 September 1956 (aged 79) Brighton, Sussex, England
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| Nationality | British |
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| Spouse(s) | Winifred Beilby |
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Frederick Soddy was a smart British scientist. He was born in England in 1877. He helped explain how radioactivity works. He worked with another famous scientist, Ernest Rutherford.
Together, they figured out that radioactivity happens when one chemical element changes into another. This process is called nuclear transmutation. Soddy also proved that different versions of the same element exist. These are called isotopes.
In 1921, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He received it for his important work on radioactive substances and isotopes. Soddy was a very broad thinker. He knew a lot about chemistry, physics, and even economics.
Contents
Frederick Soddy's Early Life and Education
Frederick Soddy was born in Eastbourne, England. His father was a corn merchant. He went to school at Eastbourne College.
Later, he studied at the University College of Wales and Merton College, Oxford. He finished his chemistry degree in 1898 with top honors. He continued his research at Oxford until 1900.
Discoveries in Radioactivity
In 1900, Soddy moved to Montreal, Canada. He became a chemistry teacher at McGill University. There, he started working with Ernest Rutherford. They studied radioactivity.
Understanding Radioactive Decay
Soddy and Rutherford noticed something strange about radioactive elements. They realized these elements were changing into other elements. This change is called radioactive decay.
During this decay, tiny particles and energy are released. These include alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays. When radioactivity was first found, no one knew why it happened. Soddy and Rutherford's careful work proved that atoms were actually changing.
Radium and Helium
In 1903, Soddy worked with Sir William Ramsay in London. They showed that when radium decays, it produces helium gas. They put radium in a special glass container. This container was inside another empty glass bulb.
After some time, they checked the gas in the outer bulb. They found helium. Later, Rutherford and Thomas Royds showed that the helium came from alpha particles. These particles are like tiny, positively charged helium atoms.
Working at Glasgow and Aberdeen
From 1904 to 1914, Soddy taught at the University of Glasgow. Ruth Pirret was his research assistant. In 1910, Soddy became a member of the Royal Society. This is a very respected group of scientists.
In 1914, he became a professor at the University of Aberdeen. He did research there that was helpful during World War I.
The Law of Radioactive Displacement
In 1913, Soddy made another important discovery. He showed how an atom's atomic number changes during radioactive decay. When an atom releases an alpha particle, its atomic number goes down by two. When it releases a beta particle, its atomic number goes up by one.
This rule was also found by Kazimierz Fajans around the same time. It is known as the radioactive displacement law of Fajans and Soddy. This law helped scientists understand how radioactive elements are related.
What are Isotopes?
In 1913, Soddy also described something new. He found that a radioactive element could have different weights. But its chemical properties would be exactly the same. He called this idea "isotopes." This word means "same place." It was suggested to him by Margaret Todd.
Later, J. J. Thomson showed that even non-radioactive elements can have isotopes. Soddy and his assistant Ada Hitchins also showed that uranium changes into radium over time.
Discovery of Protactinium
In 1918, Soddy worked with John Arnold Cranston. They announced the discovery of an isotope of an element later called protactinium. German scientists Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn had found it earlier. However, their announcement was delayed because Cranston's notes were kept safe during World War I.
Nobel Prize and Later Work
In 1919, Soddy moved to the University of Oxford. He became the first Dr. Lee's Professor of Chemistry. He improved the chemistry labs and teaching programs there.
In 1921, he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This was for his work on radioactive decay and his theory of isotopes.
Soddy wrote books like The Interpretation of Radium (1909). His writings about radioactivity inspired the author H. G. Wells. Wells wrote a novel called The World Set Free (1914). This book imagined a future war with atomic bombs. Soddy believed that radioactive processes power the stars.
Soddy's Economic Ideas
Soddy also had strong ideas about economics. He wrote four books between 1921 and 1934. He wanted to change how money worked around the world. He thought that economic rules should be based on physics, especially the laws of thermodynamics.
Many people at the time thought his ideas were strange. But some of his suggestions are common today. For example, he suggested not using the gold standard for money. He also thought that governments should use spending to control the economy.
Soddy believed that financial debts grow very quickly. But the real economy uses up limited resources like fossil fuels. He said that energy from fossil fuels cannot be used again. This idea is now part of a field called ecological economics. This field studies how the economy and the environment are connected.
The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics is an important economics book. It recognized Soddy as a "reformer" for his ideas on money.
Soddy's Views on Money
In his book Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt, Soddy talked about a "financial conspiracy." He believed that a corrupt money system could harm a nation. Later in his life, he wrote a pamphlet called Abolish Private Money, or Drown in Debt (1939). This showed his strong feelings about how money should be controlled.
Some people have wrongly accused Soddy of being against Jewish people. However, most people who have studied his life disagree. Many of his friends and students were Jewish and thought highly of him. This included Kazimierz Fajans, a Polish-Jewish physicist who worked with Soddy and Rutherford.
Soddy Circles
In 1936, Soddy rediscovered a math idea called Descartes' theorem. He even wrote a poem about it called "The Kiss Precise." This theorem describes how circles can touch each other. The circles in this problem are sometimes called Soddy circles.
Awards and Recognition
Frederick Soddy received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1921. In the same year, he joined the International Atomic Weights Committee.
A small crater on the far side of the Moon is named after him. Also, a radioactive mineral called soddyite carries his name. The writer H. G. Wells dedicated his novel The World Set Free to Soddy's book Interpretation of Radium.
Personal Life
In 1908, Soddy married Winifred Moller Beilby. Her father was an industrial chemist, Sir George Beilby. Winifred's mother, Lady Emma Bielby, helped women's causes.
Frederick and Winifred worked together. In 1910, they published a paper about how gamma rays from radium are absorbed. Soddy passed away in Brighton, England, in 1956. He was 79 years old.
See also
In Spanish: Frederick Soddy para niños
- Ada Hitchins, who helped Soddy discover the element protactinium
- Alfred J. Lotka
- Problem of Apollonius
- Oliver Sacks' autobiography Uncle Tungsten, in which Soddy, his work and his profound discoveries in atomic physics are extensively discussed and explained in Sacks' insightful and easily understandable language.
