Rutherford s gold foil experiment

A Rutherford s gold foil experiment that proved the existence of the nucleus... 

The hypothesis, experiment, and results of Rutherford s gold foil experiment. The experimental hypothesis and design owed much to the contributions of Rutherford s students, Hans Geiger (of Geiger-counter fame) and Ernest Marsden. 

Rutherford s gold-foil experiment. A beam of positively charged alpha particles was directed at a piece of gold foil. Most of the particles passed through the foil undeflected, but some were deflected. This result implied that each gold atom was mostly empty space with a concentration of mass at its center—the atomic nucleus. 

Figure 4.1 Schematic diagram of the setup in Rutherford s gold-foil experiment...

The History of the Atom Dalton s Atomic Theory Rutherford s Gold Foil Experiment Subatomic Particles Isotopes... 

T, T, CE Rutherford s gold foil experiment showed that alpha particles can pass through a sheet of gold foil, proving that the atom is mainly empty space. 

Soon after the atomic theory was widely accepted by scientists, they began constructing models of atoms. Scientists used the information that they had about atoms to build these models. They knew, for example, that an atom has a densely packed nucleus that is positively charged. This conclusion was the only way to explain the data from Rutherford s gold foil experiments. 

How did the actual results of Rutherford s gold foil experiment differ from the results he expected ... 

Not long after Rutherford s gold foil experiment, the English scientist Henry Moseley (1887-1915) discovered that atoms of each element contain a unique positive charge in their nuclei. Thus, the number of protons in an atom identifies it as an atom of a particular element. The number of protons in an atom is referred to as the atomic number. 

Prior to Rutherford s gold-foil experiment, the mass and positively charged particles of an atom were thought to be evenly distributed throughout the volume of the atom, (a) Watch the movie of the Rutherford Experiment (eChapter 2.2), and describe how the experimental results would have been different if the earlier model had been correct, (b) What specific feature of the modern view of atomic structure was illuminated by Rutherford s experiment ... 

A FIGURE 4.4 Rutherford s gold foil experiment Tiny particles called alpha-particles were directed at a thin sheet of gold foil. Most of the particles passed directly through the foil. A few, however, were deflected—some of them at sharp angles. 

Discovery of the Atom s Nucieus Rutherford s gold foil experiment probed atomic structure, and his results led to the nuclear model of fhe atom, which, with minor modifications to accommodate neutrons, is still valid today. In this model, the atom is composed of protons and neutrons—which compose most of the atom s mass and are grouped together in a dense nucleus—and electrons, which compose most of the atom s volume. Protons and neutrons have similar masses (1 amu), while electrons have a much smaller mass (0.00055 amu). Discovery of the Atom s Nucleus We can understand why this is relevant by asking, what if it were otherwise What if matter were not mostly empty space While we cannot know for certain, it seems probable that such matter would not form the diversity of substances required for life—and then, of course, we would not be around to ask the question. 

Describe Rutherford s gold foil experiment and the results of that experiment. How did these results contradict the plum pudding model of the atom ... 

A clear example of empirical science is the falsifying of Thomson s plum pudding model by Rutherford s gold foil experiment. One issue is that some so-called scientific theories are non-falsifiable, for example string theory. Science can be demarcated from pseudoscience less by what science is, and more by what scientists do. Science is a set of methods aimed at testing hypotheses and developing theories. If the theory is adopted by the scientific community, then the chances are it is science. 

Use Rutherford s gold-foil experiment to answer each of the following (4.3)... 

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