Rutherford calculated that a gold atom is about 10,000 larger than its nucleus. Thinking about his experiment and its results, how did he come to this conclusion?

Question

Rihanna Welch

Chemistry

15 December, 04:41

Rutherford calculated that a gold atom is about 10,000 larger than its nucleus. Thinking about his experiment and its results, how did he come to this conclusion?

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Lilliana · Answer 1

Bombarded α-Particles on a thin Sheet of Gold

Explanation:

Rutherford Atomic Model is also known as " The plum pudding model" Rutherford's in his experiment bombarded α-particles which are of high energy on a thin sheet of gold nearly 100 nm of thickness and observed the trajectory path of these particles after interacting with the foil of gold. He placed a fluorescent screen of zinc sulfide around the thin gold foil to study the trajectory path of the α-particles and its deflection. Most of the α-particles passed through the gold foil were not deflected as most of the internal space of the atom was empty. The result was that the positive charge of the atom occupies very little space.