Question

Although Rutherford is credited with the famous gold foil scattering experiment, he didn’t actually conduct this experiment himself. It was done by two of his assistants, Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden. Do you think it was fair to name the experiment after Rutherford while ignoring the other two scientists? Why or why not? Give credible arguments for your answer

Answer 1

Although he did not do the experiment himself, he had come up with the idea of what to do and how to do it. I think that only Rutherford receiving credit is okay as the assistants did not do anything to contribute to the actual idea of the experiment.
For example, we credit the invention of the iPhone to Steve Jobs, the engineers of Apple, the designers, etc. - those with actual contributions to the invention and the ideas and not the Chinese factory workers - those who construct the iPhone itself.