 Welcome to the We Create EDU Back to School Knowledge Swap in which we challenge fellow educational YouTubers to explain a topic outside of their usual areas of specialty. Today, my friend AJ from the channel LibLab is here to tell us about some science words. Over to you, AJ. Thanks, Mark. I'm AJ, host of LibLab, and you're watching the Endless Knot. Electrons, protons, and neutrons are the fundamental particles that make up an atom, the building blocks of the universe. But how did these fundamental particles get their names? Let's go find out. So first, let's start with proton. Coined by Ernest Rutherford in 1920, proton gets its name from the root word protos, meaning first. Like hydrogen, the first element of the periodic table which is made of one proton and one electron. Before that though, in 1891, George J. Stoney coined the term electron for the electrical charge associated with a univalent ion. But that definition didn't last long. Later in 1908, Heinrich Lorenz used electron to describe the subatomic particle that we know today. Mostly because he kind of liked the way it sounded. Finally, neutron, which gets its name from the adjective neutral, was coined in 1921 by US chemist William D. Harkness and describes the neutral particle in an atom. The interesting history connecting all three of these terms comes from the suffix on, as in ion, an electrically charged atom or molecule. And its basis comes from some correspondence between Michael Faraday and his friends back in 1834, trying to come up with terms to describe the then-new field of electrochemistry. Now, this correspondence between Michael Faraday, Whitlock Nicol and William Huell is pretty well documented and gives a very interesting insight into the generation of new scientific nomenclature. But before we get to that, I think we should cover a little bit more detail on what exactly is electrochemistry. Electrochemistry is a branch of physical chemistry focused on the relationship between electricity and chemical change. One of the most well-known processes in electrochemistry is electrolysis, or the electrochemical decomposition of molecules into their elemental parts, such as in removing metals from ore or, as Faraday did, breaking water into hydrogen and oxygen using an electrolytic cell. An electrolytic cell is comprised of a positively charged electrode called an anode, a negatively charged electrode called a cathode, and a conductive medium called an electrolyte. In this case, we'll use a solution of sodium hydroxide and water for our electrolyte. During the electrolysis process, anions are oxidized and lose electrons, while cations are reduced and gain electrons. When an electric current is passed through the electrodes, water molecules interact with electrons on the surface of the cathode, reducing the hydrogen atoms and forming hydrogen gas and OH anions. On the other electrode, OH anions are attracted to the anode where they undergo oxidation by depositing electrons on the anode to form water molecules and oxygen gas. If we recreate Michael Faraday's original electrolysis experiment like I have here, we can collect the hydrogen and oxygen gas to confirm the chemistry that's happened. All we have to do is ignite that sample to get my favorite oxidation reaction, combustion. Now, when Faraday originally did his experiments, he didn't have the same terminology that we have today to describe what was going on. So he set out with his friends to come up with a better way to describe electrochemical decomposition. To start, Faraday referred to the substance that was to be electrochemically decomposed as the electrolyte from electro for electricity and the Greek lightos meaning loosed, saying once it had been decomposed, it was electrolyzed, or its atoms were electrically loosed from each other. He also called the parts providing the current for electrolysis the electrodes for their electrical conductivity, but wasn't sure what to call them each individually. See, Faraday wanted to create an analogy for the process of electrolysis that he felt people would readily understand and thought that the Earth might be a good approach. Faraday knew that the Earth had an electromagnetic field at its poles, north and south, that was created by the Earth's rotation east to west, which he related to the current and electric field. Initially, Faraday toyed with the ideas of east-oad and west-oad based off of the physical setup in his experiment, where the east electrode and the west electrode produced different gases. But he knew the scientific community wouldn't readily accept a term so specific to the setup of an experiment. He knew that good scientific nomenclature should be independent of an experiment and describe a process generally so that it applied to every circumstance. Knowing this, Faraday proposed the terms isoad and exoad from the historical roots of doorway but felt that this still implied too much motion. Faraday was frustrated that relating things to doorways implied that things came out one doorway and in another. But didn't observe that behavior in his experiment. Gases were evolved at both electrodes, not one or the other. And he felt that an in and an outdoor implied that one electrode should absorb gas rather than release it. It was Faraday's friend William Huell who came to the rescue and proposed the terms anode and cathode from the Greek terms andos and cathodos, meaning the way up and the way down. Huell further suggested that the gases produced at the anode and cathode be referred to as stoichion. From stoichiometry. Where stoichiometry is the relationship between relative quantities of substances or stoichions in a chemical reaction. Huell's approach made a lot of sense. See at the anode the anion is oxidized and loses an electron causing its charge to go up andos the way up. While at the cathode the cation is reduced causing its electrical charge to go down hence cathodos the way down. After a bit of convincing and shortening stoichion to just ion Faraday agreed with Huell's argument. From there Faraday published this new terminology as well as the results from his electrolysis experiment. And well the scientific community accepted these terms pretty happily. Going so far as to shorten ion to just on to describe electron proton and neutron Or the parts of an atom from the original route for stoichion as in the parts of a chemical reaction. And the rest is history. If you enjoyed these etymological explorations please subscribe to alliterative on YouTube and share this video with your friends. And if you want to see more awesome science demos like this one Check out my channel LibLab and as always thanks for watching. Thanks AJ that was amazing. For more of this kind of fun check out his channel LibLab the library laboratory And to see more educational YouTubers doing challenges swapping channels and tackling each other's specialties Click on the playlist in the description. Thanks for watching.