Mass Spectrometry

 Mass spectrometry is an analytical tool useful for measuring the mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) of one or more molecules present in a sample.  These measurements can often be used to calculate the exact molecular weight of the sample components as well. Typically, mass spectrometers can be used to identify unknown compounds via molecular weight determination, to quantify known compounds, and to determine structure and chemical properties of molecules. In 1886, Eugen Goldstein watched beams in gas releases under low tension that voyaged away from the anode and through diverts in a punctured cathode, inverse to the bearing of adversely charged cathode beams (which head out from cathode to anode). Goldstein called these decidedly charged anode beams "Kanalstrahlen"; the standard interpretation of this term into English is "channel beams". Wilhelm Wien found that solid electric or attractive fields redirected the channel beams and, in 1899, developed a gadget with opposite electric and attractive fields that isolated the positive beams as indicated by their charge-to-mass proportion (Q/m). Wien found that the charge-to-mass proportion relied upon the idea of the gas in the release tube. English researcher J. J. Thomson later enhanced crafted by Wien by diminishing the strain to make the mass spectrograph.

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