This man was the first to
This man was the first to formulate the concept of a "half-life" and also coined the terms "alpha", "beta", and "gamma" rays to describe the types of radiation given off by thorium and radium. He also confirmed Prout's hypothesis after successfully knocking a hydrogen nucleus out of a nitrogen atom, but he may be better known for an experiment with Geiger and Marsden involving a (*) zinc sulfide sheet which lit up when alpha particles were deflected onto it. That experiment lead him to conclude that the atom was mostly empty space with a dense nucleus, replacing J. J. Thompson's plum pudding model. For ten points, name this British chemist famous for carrying out the gold-foil experiment.
This man was the first to formulate the concept of a "half-life" and also coined the terms "alpha", "beta", and "gamma" rays to describe the types of radiation given off by thorium and radium.
Ernest {Rutherford}