Question

Why did Rutherford select a gold foil in his α–ray scattering experiment?

Answer 1

Rutherford Gold foil experiment:-

• Rutherford's gold foil experiment was to show the presence of a small, massive positively charged nucleus at the center of the atom with a negative charge placed at a distance far away from the nucleus.
• In this experiment Rutherford bombarded alpha particles in a thin sheet of gold foil to observe the behavior of alpha particles with the sub-atomic particles of the gold atom.
• Most of the fast-moving particles went straight, Some of the alpha particles are deflected by a very small angle and approximately $12,000$ appeared to rebound.

Diagram:

Selection of the gold foil:-

• Rutherford selected gold foil in his experiment as a very thin material was required for the scattering to occur.
• Malleability(tendency to form a thin sheet) of the Gold metal is highest so, we can form the thinnest sheet of atoms to observe clearly the behavior of alpha particles with the gold atom.