General Knowledge
What did J.J. Thomson and his son each win a Nobel for?
- Proving the electron is a particle, then a wave
- The same discovery
- Two elements
The answer is Proving the electron is a particle, then a wave. Father showed it was a particle, son that it was a wave. Both correct.
The father proved the electron is a particle, in 1897, and won the prize in 1906. The son, George Paget Thomson, demonstrated in 1927 that electrons diffract like waves, and won in 1937. A father and son awarded Nobel Prizes for apparently contradicting each other, and both correct.
That is the central strangeness of quantum mechanics rather than a family joke. An electron is not a small ball and not a ripple; it is something that produces particle results in experiments designed to detect particles and wave results in experiments designed to detect waves. Which behaviour you see depends on what you set up, and no picture from ordinary experience covers both.
The elder Thomson also has an unusual teaching record: seven of his research assistants went on to win Nobel Prizes of their own, along with his son. He found the electron by showing cathode rays could be bent by electric and magnetic fields and were far lighter than any atom - which meant atoms had parts, and the word atom, meaning uncuttable, had been wrong since Democritus coined it.