Rutherford Scattering

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Slide 30

Results

Rutherford’s experiment found that:

Most of the alpha particles passed through the gold foil

undeviated.

A few alpha particles were deflected from their path

but continued through the gold foil.

A small number of alpha particles rebounded.

Slide 31

Conclusion

As most alpha particles passed through the gold foil

atoms undeviated, Rutherford concluded that most of

the atom was actually empty space.

From the results of his experiment, Rutherford explained:

The deviation of some alpha particles from their

original path were due to positive charges within the

foil.

Slide 32

From the results of his experiment, Rutherford explained:

Conclusion

A small number of alpha particles had rebounded

because they collided with something much larger and

heavier and which contains a concentrated region of

positive charge.

Slide 33

As a result of his observations, Rutherford suggested that the atom had a positively charged centre which contained most of the mass.

He called the heavy positively charged centre the nucleus.

He went on to suggest that the nucleus was surrounded by orbiting electrons required for electrical neutrality.