Q 01/05

Which dessert gave its popular name to J. J. Thomson's 1904 model of the atom, with electrons scattered like raisins?

A) Treacle tart

B) Christmas cake

C) Plum pudding

D) Spotted dick

Answer · why

C) Plum pudding

Plum pudding was a nickname Thomson never used himself: a magazine reporter made the comparison in 1906, and it stuck to his picture of electrons set ...

Q 02/05

J. J. Thomson proved the electron is a particle; his son George won a Nobel Prize for showing electrons act as what?

A) Waves

B) Magnets

C) Fluids

D) Sparks

Answer · why

A) Waves

Waves are what George Paget Thomson revealed when he diffracted electrons through crystals, earning the 1937 physics Nobel, 31 years after his father'...

Q 03/05

J. J. Thomson's ashes rest near the grave of Isaac Newton inside which famous London church?

A) St Paul's Cathedral

B) Westminster Abbey

C) Southwark Cathedral

D) Temple Church

Answer · why

B) Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey took Thomson's ashes in 1940, placing the discoverer of the electron among the most honoured names in British science.

Q 04/05

J. J. Thomson resisted the word 'electron' for years, preferring which name for the particles he had discovered?

A) Animalcules

B) Granules

C) Monads

D) Corpuscles

Answer · why

D) Corpuscles

Corpuscles was Thomson's word until about 1914. He disliked 'electron' because some physicists used it for a supposed positive particle too.

Q 05/05

J. J. Thomson entered Owens College at just 14 in which English city, the place of his birth?

A) Liverpool

B) Southampton

C) Manchester

D) Sheffield

Answer · why

C) Manchester

Manchester was home: Thomson was born in its Cheetham Hill suburb, and Owens College later grew into the city's university.