| This experiment determined the basic structure of the atom. Although the basic structure has been modified since Rutherford did his experiment, the original conclusions still hold some validity. Rutherford's biggest contribution with this idea was to get the Chemistry community to start thinking about the structure of the atom in new ways. |
| Ernest Rutherford shot alpha particles at a very thin sheet of gold foil. He expected the particles to pass through the foil because of their large mass and the fragile nature of the foil. Instead, he observed that some of the particles were deflected to the sides of the foil and a very limited number were bounced off of the foil. Based on these results, he concluded that the foil consisted primarily of empty space. This allowed most of the alpha particles to pass straight through the foil as if nothing was present. The particles that bounced off were hitting objects with very small volume but very large mass. We now know that this small volume, large mass object is the nucleus. Given the large mass and small volume, the nucleus is extremely dense. |  |
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When Rutherford observed his results, he said that having the alpha particle bounce off of the foil was equivalent to seeing a cannon ball bounce off of a piece of tissue paper. He would not have expected either event to happen. |
From the experiment, Rutherford went on to establish the idea of the Planetary Model of the Atom.
| A measure of the average kinetic energy of all the particles in a system. It can be measured in a variety of scales--Celsius, Fahrenheit, Kelvin. The Kelvin scale is the "absolute" temperature scale. The Kelvin scale is based on Absolute Zero being assigned a value of Zero Kelvin. Absolute Zero is the coldest of all possible temperature values. All other temperature values will be positive in the Kelvin system. It is the primary temperature system used when doing scientific calculations that involve temperature variables. |
| Weight is the measure of the Earth's gravitational attraction for matter. If an object were moved to different locations in the Universe, then it would change its weight. This is due to the change in the gravitational field. Consequently, Weight is not constant and would, therefore, be a poor way of measuring the quantity of matter in a given sample. Mass is more reliable because of its constant nature. |
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kdrews@bcpl.net |  |
