Name: Electrovalency
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 1 min 51 s
Description: Do you know how chemical bonds are formed? They are formed in order to attain a stable electronic configuration. Let's watch the video to learn about the pro...

Question

Describe Rutherford's scattering experiment.

Accepted Answer

Rutherford produced a narrow beam of $α$ -particles from a radioactive source (such as, radium or polonium) and allowed it to strike an extremely thin gold foil. The emergent beam of $α$ -particles was then allowed to fall on a spherical screen coated with zinc sulphide.

Rutherford expected that if the spherical model proposed earlier which made for a uniform distribution of positive and negative particles was correct, then the $α$ -particles striking the gold atoms would be uniformly deflected. However, Rutherford made the observations given ahead:

1. Most of the $α$ -particles $(99.9 %)$ passed straight through the gold foil without undergoing any deflection from their original path.

2. A few of them were deflected through small angles while a very few were deflected through large angles.

3. A very small percentage ( $1$ in $12, 000$ ) was deflected through angles ranging from $90 °$ to $180 °$ . That is, these $α$ -particles were deflected back.

Describe Rutherford's scattering experiment.

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