Rutherford and the nucleus
In 1905, Ernest Rutherford did an experiment to test the plum pudding model. His two students, Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, directed a beam of Subatomic particle comprising two protons and two neutrons (the same as a helium nucleus). at a very thin gold leaf suspended in a A volume that contains no matter..
The vacuum is important because any deflection of the alpha particles would only be because of collisions with the gold foil and not due to deflections off anything else.
Gold was used because it was the only metal that could be rolled out to be very, very thin without cracking.
It was thought that the alpha particles could pass straight through the thin foil, or possibly puncture it. If the plum pudding model had been correct then all of the fast, highly charged alpha particles would have whizzed straight through undeflected. The scientists were very surprised when other things happened:
- most of the alpha particles did pass straight through the foil
- a small number of alpha particles were deflected by large angles (> 4°) as they passed through the foil
- a very small number of alpha particles came straight back off the foil
Rutherford considered these observations and he concluded:
- the fact that most alpha particles went straight through the foil is evidence for the atom being mostly empty space
- a small number of alpha particles being deflected at large angles suggested that there is a concentration of positive charge in the atom - like charges repel, so the positive alpha particles were being repelled by positive charges
- the very small number of alpha particles coming straight back suggested that the positive charge and mass are concentrated in a tiny volume in the atom (the nucleus) - the tiny number doing this means the chance of being on that exact collision course was very small, and so the 'target' being aimed at had to be equally tiny
Rutherford had discovered the nuclear atom, a small, positively-charged The central part of an atom. It contains protons and neutrons, and has most of the mass of the atom. The plural of nucleus is nuclei. surrounded by empty space and then a layer of electrons to form the outside of the atom.
The discovery of the make-up of the nucleus (protons and neutrons) came much later, and was not made by Rutherford. The nucleus was calculated to be about 1/10,000th the size of the atom.