👤 whose
Whose experiment showed that alpha particles could reveal the atom’s tiny nucleus?
Quick Answer
Ernest Rutherford’s. The gold foil experiment, done in 1909, showed that atoms have a small, dense nucleus.
The Full Story
Ernest Rutherford’s famous gold foil experiment, carried out with Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden in 1909, fired alpha particles at thin gold foil. Most particles passed through, but a few were deflected at large angles, which was unexpected. Rutherford concluded that atoms are mostly empty space with a tiny, dense, positively charged nucleus. This discovery replaced the old plum-pudding view of the atom and reshaped atomic theory.
Key Facts
1.1909: the gold foil experiment was performed
2.A tiny fraction of alpha particles bounced sharply back
3.The nucleus contains most of an atom’s mass
YouTube Angle
Suggested video title for this topic:
"The experiment that discovered the atom’s hidden core"
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