What were the three major observations Rutherford made in the gold foil experiment?
Answers
The three major Observations made by the Rutherford in the Gold foil experiments are ⇒
1. Most of the Alpha Particles (nearly 99%) passed through the gold foil undeflected.
2. A small Fraction of the alpha participles get deflected through small angles.
3. Very Few(about 1 in 20,000) did not pass through the foil at all but suffered large deflections (more than 90 %) or even come back suffering the deflections of 180°.
Hope it helps.
Rutherford performed the famous Alpha scattering experiment which is commonly known as Gold foil Experiment.
This was done to bring out the atomic model of an atom during the 18th century.
Major Observations :
1. When the alpha particles were passed into the gold foil, most of the alpha particles passed through the gold foil and had hit the sensor on other side.
This implied that atoms had large amount of empty space inside them.
2. Also he noticed that all the particles where deflected from the center allowing only some particles to pass and hit center.
This implied that larger mass of proton was present in the center of an atom in gold as Like charges repel due to which protons of alpha particles were deflected.
3. Particles that had hit the center were exactly deflected 180°.
This implied that the center of the nucleus contained most of the protons. Also he implied that this region was the smallest region of atom having mass. Hence he named this area to be called as nucleus.
These were the observations made from Rutherford's Gold foil Experiment.