Question

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?

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.