Rutherford's Particle Scattering Experiment
I am struggling to work out what evidence this experiment provides to show that the nucleus of an atom contains most of its mass.
Which of the following is not a valid conclusion from Rutherford’s alpha particle scattering experiment?
A The atom is mainly empty space.
B The mass of the atom is mostly concentrated in the nucleus.
C The nucleus must be positively charged.
D The nucleus must be very small compared to the atom
The answer is C, but I don't understand why B is incorrect.
Which of the following is not a valid conclusion from Rutherford’s alpha particle scattering experiment?
A The atom is mainly empty space.
B The mass of the atom is mostly concentrated in the nucleus.
C The nucleus must be positively charged.
D The nucleus must be very small compared to the atom
The answer is C, but I don't understand why B is incorrect.
Original post by melikecheese
I am struggling to work out what evidence this experiment provides to show that the nucleus of an atom contains most of its mass.
Which of the following is not a valid conclusion from Rutherford’s alpha particle scattering experiment?
A The atom is mainly empty space.
B The mass of the atom is mostly concentrated in the nucleus.
C The nucleus must be positively charged.
D The nucleus must be very small compared to the atom
The answer is C, but I don't understand why B is incorrect.
Which of the following is not a valid conclusion from Rutherford’s alpha particle scattering experiment?
A The atom is mainly empty space.
B The mass of the atom is mostly concentrated in the nucleus.
C The nucleus must be positively charged.
D The nucleus must be very small compared to the atom
The answer is C, but I don't understand why B is incorrect.
The answer is C but B is not a incorrect conclusion, if the mass was not concentrated at the center the deflection angle would not be small for a lot of the alpha particles. The reason C is not a valid conclusion is because neutrons were not yet discovered at the time and so the whole topic now is just generalized it to say that it was charged but we did not know if it was charged or consisted of protons and neutrons, we just new it was charged.
Original post by melikecheese
I am struggling to work out what evidence this experiment provides to show that the nucleus of an atom contains most of its mass.
Which of the following is not a valid conclusion from Rutherford’s alpha particle scattering experiment?
A The atom is mainly empty space.
B The mass of the atom is mostly concentrated in the nucleus.
C The nucleus must be positively charged.
D The nucleus must be very small compared to the atom
The answer is C, but I don't understand why B is incorrect.
Which of the following is not a valid conclusion from Rutherford’s alpha particle scattering experiment?
A The atom is mainly empty space.
B The mass of the atom is mostly concentrated in the nucleus.
C The nucleus must be positively charged.
D The nucleus must be very small compared to the atom
The answer is C, but I don't understand why B is incorrect.
Scientists didn't yet know what kind of charge gold nucleus or the alpha particle had, be they both positive or both negative. All they knew was that the gold repelled some of the alpha particles.
Original post by Konanabanana
If the mass was not concentrated at the center the deflection angle would not be small for a lot of the alpha particles.
Why would mass have an effect on the deflection angle?
Original post by melikecheese
I am struggling to work out what evidence this experiment provides to show that the nucleus of an atom contains most of its mass.
Which of the following is not a valid conclusion from Rutherford’s alpha particle scattering experiment?
A The atom is mainly empty space.
B The mass of the atom is mostly concentrated in the nucleus.
C The nucleus must be positively charged.
D The nucleus must be very small compared to the atom
The answer is C, but I don't understand why B is incorrect.
Which of the following is not a valid conclusion from Rutherford’s alpha particle scattering experiment?
A The atom is mainly empty space.
B The mass of the atom is mostly concentrated in the nucleus.
C The nucleus must be positively charged.
D The nucleus must be very small compared to the atom
The answer is C, but I don't understand why B is incorrect.
Because it found that the atom is mostly empty space so most of the mass is in a small part of the atom. Quite frankly this sounds like a really **** question.
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