Talk:Antonius van den Broek

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Nuclear charge yes, number of protons doubtful in 1911

"the first who realized that the number of an element in the periodic table corresponds to its total number of electrons and protons and therefore the charge of the atom nucleus." Certainly he was the first to equate atomic number to nuclear charge, but I question whether in 1911 he equated nuclear charge to number of electrons and protons.

Remember that this was in 1911, twenty years before the neutron was proposed and then discovered. Prior to about 1930 as explained in Neutron#Discovery, the nucleus was believed to consist of protons and ELECTRONS. In the 1920's N-14 (for example) supposedly had 14 protons (to explain the mass without proposing neutrons), 7 "nuclear electrons" (to explain the nuclear charge) and 7 "orbital electrons", as in a 1929 chemistry book which I recall once seeing in someone's attic! (sorry, no proper source) If van den Broek in 1911 explained N-14 with just 7 protons and 7 electrons (and no neutrons of course), then he was ignoring the mass problem.

If I am right than the above quote should be changed to just "the first who realized that the number of an element in the periodic table corresponds to the charge of the atom nucleus," without reference to protons or electrons. Dirac66 (talk) 01:23, 1 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]