Becquerel

[bek-uh-rel, bek^uh-rel]

noun

1. Alexandre Edmond 1820–91, French physicist (son of Antoine César).

2. Antoine César 1788–1878, French physicist.

3. Antoine Henri 1852–1908, French physicist (son of Alexandre Edmond): Nobel Prize 1903.

Becquerel

¹

/ bɛkrɛl /

noun

1. Antoine Henri (ɑ̃twan ɑ̃ri). 1852–1908, French physicist, who discovered the photographic action of the rays emitted by uranium salts and so instigated the study of radioactivity: Nobel prize for physics 1903

becquerel

²

/ ˌbɛkəˈrɛl /

noun

1. Bq. the derived SI unit of radioactivity equal to one disintegration per second

Becquerel

¹

1. Family of French physicists, including Antoine César (1788–1878), one of the founders of the science of electrochemistry; his son Alexandre Edmond (1820–1891), noted for his research on phosphorescence, magnetism, electricity, and optics; and his grandson Antoine Henri (1852–1908), who discovered spontaneous radioactivity in uranium. Antoine Henri Becquerel's work led to the discovery of radium by Marie and Pierre Curie, with whom he shared the 1903 Nobel Prize for physics.

becquerel

²

1. The SI derived unit used to measure the rate of radioactive decay. When the nucleus of an atom emits nucleons (protons and/or neutrons) and is thereby transformed into a different nucleus, decay has occurred. A decay rate of one becquerel for a given quantity means there is one such atomic transformation per second.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Becquerel¹

C20: named after Antoine Henri _Becquerel

Example Sentences

Becquerel's observation didn't get much attention at first.

Read more on Salon

She wanted to explore radioactivity, which had just been discovered by Henri Becquerel, in 1896.

Read more on Nature

It began in 1896 when Henri Becquerel in Paris carelessly left a packet of uranium salts on a wrapped photographic plate in a drawer.

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In 1903, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics alongside Pierre and Henri Becquerel.

Read more on BBC

The achievements of a list of notables — from Wilhelm Rontgen to Henri Becquerel to Pierre and Marie Curie, for example — are condensed to a few pages.

Read more on Washington Post