Thomson did not explain how this equation was developed, but the historian John L. Heilbron provided an educated guess he called a "straight-line" approximation.Heilbron (1968). p. 278 Consider a beta particle passing through the positive sphere with its initial trajectory at a lateral distance b from the centre. The path is assumed to have a very small deflection and therefore is treated here as a straight line.
Thomson did not explain how this equation was developed, but the historian John L. Heilbron provided an educated guess he called a "straight-line" approximation.H!eilbron (1968) p. 278 Consider! a beta particle passing through the positive sphere with its initial trajecto.ry at a lateral distance b from the centre. The path is assumed to have a very small deflection and therefore is treated here as a straight line.