Discuss the Rutherford's experiment on the scattering of alpha particles. What are its consequences ?

Explanation

Ruther.s a-scattering experiment : Rutherford bombarded the thin gold foil with alpha particles. An alpha particle is a heliumn atom from which two electrons have been removed. Charge on alpha particle is +2eand its mass is nearly four times that of the proton.

Experimental set-up: The basic experimental set-up used by Rutherford and his associates is shown in Figure. It consisted of a narrow beam of a-particles (obtained from a radioactive substance say ^Bi kept in lead cavity) which is incident on a screen (rotatable detector) coated with zinc sulphide after passing through a thin gold foil (1CT6 m thick). Alpha particles scattered in different directions were observed with the help of movable detector. This experiment was conducted inside an evacuated chamber to avoid the scattering of a-particles due to the atoms of the air.