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Henri Becquerel

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Antoine Henri Becquerel
Born(1852-12-15)December 15, 1852
DiedAugust 25, 1908(1908-08-25) (aged 55)
OccupationPhysicist
Known forNobel Prize in Physics in 1903

Antoine Henri Becquerel (15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908) was a French physicist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with Marie Curie and Pierre Curie for his discovery of radioactivity in 1896.[1] This happened when a piece of pitchblende ruined some photographic film and he investigated. Other scientists had seen film similarly ruined but did not discover why.

The SI unit becquerel named after him. One becquerel (Bq) is equal to one radioactive decay process per second. He was the third person in his family to occupy the physics chair at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle.

References

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  1. "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903". nobelprize.org. 2011. Retrieved March 23, 2011.