Explain Rutherford's atomic model experiment

Rutherford had a sheet of gold foil just a few atoms thick, and surrounded it with detectors. He then fired alpha particles at the gold sheet, knowing that these were positively charged. Some of these were deflected from their paths, a very small number were reflected, but most passed straight through the foil. This told Rutherford that most of the atom must be empty space. He explained the deflections and reflections with a concentration of charge in the middle of the space of each atom. As so few were reflected and deflected compared to those that went straight through, the charge must be tiny compared to the atom. As it was repelling the positive alpha particles, it must also be positive. This was the nucleus.

HM

Related Physics A Level answers

All answers ▸

The vehicle accelerates horizontally from rest to 27.8 m s–1 in a time of 4.6 s. The mass of the vehicle is 360 kg and the rider has a mass of 82 kg. 1. Calculate the average acceleration during the 4.6 s time interval.


If the highest frequency a song is 10 kHz and it is encoded at 16 bits per sample what is the minimum number of bytes needed to encode the 3 minute song?


If a stationary observer sees a ship moving relativistically (near the speed of light), will it appear contracted or enlarged? And by how much.


Can a projectile of speed 10m/s at an angle of 45° to the horizontal following a path perpendicular to a wall 8m away and 6m high reach beyond the wall? Justify your answer. Take g as 10m/s/s