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    Rutherford Experiment

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    Shu Min
    Rutherford and his colleagues Geiger and Marsden conducted an experiment in 1909 where they fired a beam of alpha particles at a thin gold foil. Contrary to expectations, some of the alpha particles bounced back or were deflected at large angles. This unexpected result led Rutherford to conclude that atoms have a small, dense nucleus containing their mass and positive charge, with the rest of the atom being mostly empty space. Rutherford's discovery of the atomic nucleus revolutionized the understanding of atomic structure.

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    Rutherford Experiment

    Uploaded by

    Shu Min
    145 views3 pages
    Rutherford and his colleagues Geiger and Marsden conducted an experiment in 1909 where they fired a beam of alpha particles at a thin gold foil. Contrary to expectations, some of the alpha particles bounced back or were deflected at large angles. This unexpected result led Rutherford to conclude that atoms have a small, dense nucleus containing their mass and positive charge, with the rest of the atom being mostly empty space. Rutherford's discovery of the atomic nucleus revolutionized the understanding of atomic structure.

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    Rutherford and his colleagues Geiger and Marsden conducted an experiment in 1909 where they fired a beam of alpha particles at a thin gold foil. Contrary to expectations, some of the alpha particles bounced back or were deflected at large angles. This unexpected result led Rutherford to conclude that atoms have a small, dense nucleus containing their mass and positive charge, with the rest of the atom being mostly empty space. Rutherford's discovery of the atomic nucleus revolutionized the understanding of atomic structure.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    145 views3 pages

    Rutherford Experiment

    Uploaded by

    Shu Min
    Rutherford and his colleagues Geiger and Marsden conducted an experiment in 1909 where they fired a beam of alpha particles at a thin gold foil. Contrary to expectations, some of the alpha particles bounced back or were deflected at large angles. This unexpected result led Rutherford to conclude that atoms have a small, dense nucleus containing their mass and positive charge, with the rest of the atom being mostly empty space. Rutherford's discovery of the atomic nucleus revolutionized the understanding of atomic structure.

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    Rutherford Experiment

    Experiment Procedure and Result


    In 1909, two researchers in Ernest Rutherford's laboratory at the University of
    Manchester, Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, fired a beam of alpha particles
    at a thin metal foil. Alpha particles are one of the types of radiation given off
    by radioactive elements such as uranium.

    Ernest Rutherford

    Hans Geiger

    Ernest Marsden

    If Thomson's Plum Pudding model was to be accurate, the big alpha particles
    should have passed through the gold foil with only a few minor deflections. As
    the alpha particles are heavy and the charge in the "plum pudding model" is
    widely spread.

    However, the actual results surprised Rutherford. Although many of the alpha
    particles did pass through as expected, many others were deflected at large
    angles while others were reflected back to the alpha source.

    Expected results: Alpha particles passing


    through the plum pudding model of the
    atom are undisturbed.

    Observed results: A small portion of the


    particles were deflected, indicating a small,
    concentrated positive charge.
    *The image is not to scale; in reality the
    nucleus is vastly smaller than the electron
    shell.*

    In detail:
    A beam of alpha particles, generated by the radioactive decay of radon
    was directed normally onto a sheet of very thin gold foil.
    A zinc sulphide screen at the focus of a microscope was used as a
    detector; the screen and microscope could be swiveled around the foil
    to observe particles deflected at any given angle.
    Under the prevailing plum pudding model, the alpha particles should
    all have been deflected by, at most, a few degrees; measuring the
    pattern of scattered particles was expected to provide information
    about the distribution of charge within the atom.
    However they observed that a very small percentage of particles were
    deflected through angles much larger than 90 degrees.

    Rutherford made 3 observations:


    Most of the fast, highly charged alpha particles went whizzing straight
    through undeflected. This was the expected result for all of the particles
    if the plum pudding model was correct.
    Some of the alpha particles were deflected back through large angles.
    This was not expected.

    A very small number of alpha particles were deflected backwards! This


    was definitely not as expected.

    Theory
    Major portion of the atom is empty.
    The whole mass of the atom is concentrated in the center of atom
    called nucleus.
    The positively charged particles are present in the nucleus of atom.
    The charge on the nucleus of an atom is equal to (+z.e) where Z=
    charge number, e = charge of proton.
    The electrons rotate around the nucleus in different circular orbits.
    Size of nucleus is very small as compare to the size of atom.
    Conclusion
    1) Many of the alpha particles were deflected or reflected meant that the
    atom had a concentrated center of positive charge and of relatively
    large mass.
    2) The alpha particles had either hit the positive center directly or passed
    by it close enough to be affected by its positive charge.
    3) Rutherford was forced to conclude that most of the remainder of the
    atom was a region of very low density, because the majority of the
    positive particles continued on their original path unmoved.
    4) A great deal of charge was also associated with the central region of
    high density, which is the nucleus.
    5) In 1911, Rutherford rejected J.J. Thomson's plum pudding model of
    the atom. He suggested that a large amount of the atom's charge and
    mass is concentrated in a very small region, giving it a very high
    electric field. Outside of the nucleus, he proposed that the atom was
    mostly empty space.
    6) Although Rutherford's model of the atom itself had a number of
    problems with electron charge placement and motion, the central
    conclusion from the GeigerMarsden experiment, the existence of the
    nucleus still holds.
    7) Rutherford's model was later refined by physicist Neils Bohr in 1913.
    Bohr's model of the atom is the basic atomic model used today.

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