Three People. 366 Days. 1 Blog.

Sunday 12 February 2012

February 12th: National Plum Pudding Day

Again, not the best time to have this day. The only time that plum puddings make an appearance in our house is at Christmas, and they're generally wasted then, as neither Esther nor I like them. So, unsurprisingly, I didn't eat any plum pudding yesterday. Instead, I decided to use the day as an excuse to focus on something that springs to mind somewhat more readily when I hear the words “plum pudding”. Yep, that’s right. The plum pudding model of the atom, proposed by J.J.Thompson in 1904, then disproved by the famous Rutherford scattering experiment in 1909. Admittedly, it was wrong, and not the most exciting scientific theory ever, but it did lead to Bohr’s quantum model of the atom, which was a fairly important step in the development of quantum mechanics.
Quantum mechanics, by the way, is awesome. It seems to be a general law that Chemistry teachers aren’t allowed to understand it, but when you find either a physics teacher or a book that really know what they’re talking about…
And I’m getting off topic. I hope Jonnie and/or Laura has actually eaten some plum pudding now, but hey. Physics is way cooler.

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