What do you think would be the observation if -particle scattering experiment is carried out using a foil of a metal other than gold?
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Solution
Rutherford's scattering experiment:
Scientist named Earnest Rutherford of New Zealand challenged Thomson's atomic concept in with his gold foil experiment.
His research demonstrated the existence of an atom's small, massive nucleus. As a result, it rejected Thomson's atomic model.
Rutherford chose a gold foil because he needed a thin coating.
Fast-moving alpha particles were forced to fall on a tiny piece of gold foil in his experiment.
The energetic alpha particles are composed of helium ions with a charge.
The light bursts saw the particles that were created as they collided with a zinc sulfide screen.
He anticipated that the alpha particles would impact the fluorescent screen and easily pass through the gold foil
Reason for using Gold foil:
Gold is a heavy metal with a flexible nucleus that can be readily formed into a thin foil that scatters alpha particles because of its density.
What if any other metal was used:
As an alternative, producing thin foil from other metals is much more expensive and complex than doing so with gold, and if we use a metal sheet with a greater thickness, the outcome could not be as expected.
More particles would bounce back if we used a thick foil, making it impossible to determine with such confidence where the positive mass of the atom is located.
The fundamental issue is that, except for hydrogen and helium, all metal nuclei are heavy and can deflect alpha radiation when converted into thin foil.
Hence, gold was preferred over the other metal for Rutherford's experiment