Rutherfords Gold Foil Experiment

Holy Name of Mary Catholic Secondary School

A scientific theory is an expression of our best understandings of a phenomenon, based on scientific theories or reasoning. As technologies improve, theories may need to be changed or discarded.

Rutherfords Gold Foil Experiment

1910

Ernest Rutherford
In 1909, Earnest Rutherford supervised an

experiment to test Thompsons model of the

atom.

He fired Helium nuclei at a piece of gold foil

which was only a few atoms thick.

The Gold Foil Experiment- The Nucleus and the Proton

His prediction: If positive and negative charges were uniformly distributed throughout atoms, then tiny positively charged particles shot at a thin piece of gold foil would pass through the foil.

The Gold Foil Experiment- The Nucleus and the Proton

When the experiment was performed: Most of the particles passed through unaffected A small number of particles were deflected at very large angles

THE OUTCOME

WHATS HAPPENING?

The Gold Foil Experiment.....

The Gold Foil Experiment- The Nucleus and the Proton

Rutherford reasoned that these large angles of deflection were caused by a collision with a small, concentrated, positively charged central mass inside the atom.

Rutherford's Revised Model:

-the centre of the atom has a positive charge; called the nucleus. -contains most of the atoms mass, but a very small amount of space -the nucleus is surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons

However, this was not the end of the story.....

HISTORY OF THE ATOM

Rutherfords new evidence allowed him to propose

a more detailed model with a central nucleus.

He suggested that the positive charge was all in a central nucleus. With this holding the electrons in place by electrical attraction

Rutherford is also credited with discovering the

neutron in 1920.

Measurements in atomic mass showed that protons

could not account for the total mass of the nucleus. Rutherford then predicted that there was a third particle (neutron) that has the same mass as the proton, but had a neutral charge.

Rutherfords Model of the Atom

3 major differences between modern atomic theory & Daltons atomic theory: Atoms are NOT indivisible they are made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons Atoms of the same element are NOT exactly alike they can have different masses (isotopes) Atoms CAN be changed from one element to another, but not by chemical reactions (nuclear reactions)