wiz-icon
MyQuestionIcon
MyQuestionIcon
1
You visited us 1 times! Enjoying our articles? Unlock Full Access!
Question

How was the nucleus was discovered?


Open in App
Solution

Discovery of Nucleus

  • The nucleus was discovered by Sir Ernest Rutherford in 1911.
    Rutherford Gold Foil Experiment
  • He performed a gold foil experiment which leads to the discovery of the nucleus.
Rutherford's experiment and Discovery of Nucleus.
  • In Rutherford’s gold foil experiment, a beam of alpha particles was shot at a thin sheet of gold foil.
  • Most of the alpha particles passed straight through the gold foil.
  • But a small number of alpha particles were deflected slightly.
  • And an even smaller fraction of alpha particles were deflected more than 90 degrees from their path.
  • This led Rutherford to propose the nuclear model of an atom.
  • According to Rutherford, an atom consists of a very small, positively charged nucleus surrounded by negatively charged electrons.
Discovery of Nucleus of the Atom.
  • In the gold foil experiment, he showed that the atom is composed of mostly empty space with a tiny, dense, positively-charged nucleus.
  • Based on the number of alpha particles deflected in the experiment.
  • Rutherford calculated that the nucleus took up a tiny fraction of the volume of the atom.

flag
Suggest Corrections
thumbs-up
16
Join BYJU'S Learning Program
similar_icon
Related Videos
thumbnail
lock
Discovery of Subatomic Particles
CHEMISTRY
Watch in App
Join BYJU'S Learning Program
CrossIcon