Briefly explain Rutherford scattering experiment. What results have followed from it?
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Ernest Rutherford was interested in knowing how the electrons are arranged within an atom. Rutherford designed an experiment for this. In this experiment, fast moving alpha (α)-particles were made to fall on a thin gold foil.
He selected a gold foil because he wanted as thin a layer as possible. This gold foil was about 1000 atoms thick.
α-particles are doubly-charged helium ions. Since they have a mass of 4µ, the fast-moving α-particles have a considerable amount of energy.
It was expected that α-particles would be deflected by the sub-atomic particles in the gold atoms. Since the α-particles were much heavier than the protons, he did not expect to see large deflections. But, the α-particle scattering experiment gave totally unexpected results .
Observations of Rutherford's scattering experiment:
As we can see in Fig. 1.
Most of the fast moving α-particles passed straight through the gold foil.
Some of the α-particles were deflected by the foil by small angles.
Surprisingly one out of every 12,000 alpha particles appeared to rebound..
Conclusion of Rutherford's scattering experiment:
Most of the space inside the atom is empty because most of the α-particles passed through the gold foil without getting deflected.
Very few particles were deflected from their path, indicating that the positive charge of the atom occupies very little space.
A very small fraction of α-particles were deflected by very large angles, indicating that all the positive charge and mass of the gold atom were concentrated in a very small volume within the atom.
From the data he also calculated that the radius of the nucleus is about 105times less than the radius of the atom.
He selected a gold foil because he wanted as thin a layer as possible. This gold foil was about 1000 atoms thick.
α-particles are doubly-charged helium ions. Since they have a mass of 4µ, the fast-moving α-particles have a considerable amount of energy.
It was expected that α-particles would be deflected by the sub-atomic particles in the gold atoms. Since the α-particles were much heavier than the protons, he did not expect to see large deflections. But, the α-particle scattering experiment gave totally unexpected results .
Observations of Rutherford's scattering experiment:
As we can see in Fig. 1.
Most of the fast moving α-particles passed straight through the gold foil.
Some of the α-particles were deflected by the foil by small angles.
Surprisingly one out of every 12,000 alpha particles appeared to rebound..
Conclusion of Rutherford's scattering experiment:
Most of the space inside the atom is empty because most of the α-particles passed through the gold foil without getting deflected.
Very few particles were deflected from their path, indicating that the positive charge of the atom occupies very little space.
A very small fraction of α-particles were deflected by very large angles, indicating that all the positive charge and mass of the gold atom were concentrated in a very small volume within the atom.
From the data he also calculated that the radius of the nucleus is about 105times less than the radius of the atom.
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