Preview

Ernest Rutherford's Experiment: Gold Foil And Shot Helium Atoms

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
363 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ernest Rutherford's Experiment: Gold Foil And Shot Helium Atoms
Ernest Rutherford's experiment was that he took a piece of gold foil and shot helium atoms at it. In theory they should have rebounded off of the gold foil because scientists at that time believed that the atom was a solid sphere, but what actually happened was that most of the atoms went through the gold foil.This showed that the atom wasn't just a solid sphere like they believed but actually had a nucleus with electrons surrounding it.
In 1897, a British physicist named J. J. Thomson discovered electrons through his cathode ray experiment. Thomson made the cathode ray by firing electrical currents through glass pipes filled with low-density gas. Thomson measured the ratio as always the same, regardless of what elemental gas was in the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Although Joseph John (J.J.) Thomson (1856 - 1940) was mainly a physicist, his discoveries are closely connected to the chemical community. Thomson used Crookes high vacuum cathode ray tube in his discovery of electrons. He found the green beam produced by the cathode ray tube was a completely negatively charged material. Experimenting with different electrically charged plates and magnets in the cathode ray tube and observing the deflection of the rays he had enough evidence to say that particles smaller than atoms existed. By doing this experiment multiple times he compiled enough data to conclude that the mass of one of these particles, which he called an electron, was lighter than an atom of hydrogen by around 2,000 times. He also found the ratio of charge to mass (e/m) would be the same for any electron.…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Six scientists were chosen to see which one had made the greatest contribution to our current understanding of the atom’s structure. Our knowledge of an atom’s appearance and structure have evolved from years and years of development and contribution from many different scientists. Scientist Ernest Rutherford had been the best contributor to the understanding of the atomic structure. Why Rutherford was chosen is because his work had information on protons, neutrons, and electrons, the main components that make up the atom, showed what the atom looks like when the three are put together, and had also been the discoverer of the nucleus which is the one of them most important parts of the atom’s structure.…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Aristotle - DENIED IT. He is why Democritus’ atomic theory was rejected and why that theory hasn’t been expanded on for 2000 years until……

    • 5272 Words
    • 22 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rutherford is a Physicist, Scientist. Ernest is also known as the world’s first successful alchemist. Ernest Rutherford was the first scientist to explore into the structure of the atom Unlike many people, Rutherford was not very known for his achievements like the Gold Foil experiment, which helped prove that electrons orbited the nucleus surrounded by empty space.…

    • 730 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He also invented the Crookes tubes which is an early experimental electrical discharge tube, with partial vacuum. He discovered cathode rays, and streams of electrons using the Crookes tubes. The Crookes tube was developed by the Geissler tube, and it consists of partially evacuated glass container of various shapes, with two metal electrodes, the cathode and the anode. Crookes tubes are now used only for demonstrating cathode rays. Crookes tubes also helped make the later development of X-rays…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Miderm Sheet

    • 1662 Words
    • 7 Pages

    ← Discovered by J. J. Thomson 1897 (also discovered charge to mass ratio (1.76*10^8 C/g))…

    • 1662 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Dalton Theory

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Although John Dalton was the scientist to discover the first scientific theory of an atom, J.J Thomson was next to research the atom. While evaluating Daltons work, he found that atoms are not indivisible. He experimented and found that when the atom is excited by an electrical current it causes the atom to break apart into two parts. Then to further explain his findings, Thomson created a model which was called the Plum-pudding atom. In the model the “plums” are the negatively charged electrons, while the “pudding” is the mass of positive…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    With Franklin's experiments it all showed that electricity consisted of a common element which he called electric fire. Further he discovered that electricity was fluid like a liquid. It passed…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It took many scientists and philosophers hundreds even thousands of years to come up with an accurate atomic theory. For nearly 2,000 years science was unable to come up with experiments that were able to test and put forth the theories made up by Democritus which was a fifth century B.C. Greek philosopher. In 1803, John Dalton, who viewed the atom as a small solid sphere, and is credited for the developing of the first coherent atomic theory was now in the picture. This all led to the the first periodic table of the elements, and the history of the atom.…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In fact, In 1831, a scientist named Micheal Faraday discovered a way to conduct an electrical current through a wire. This discovery was called the basic principles of electrical generation. Thomas Edison also did several experiments that later led to the invention of the Light Bulb in 1879. He made it possible for people to use the artificial light by 1880. His invention made Micheal Faraday's discovery of conducting electrical currents through a wire into an electrical force inside a pear-shaped glass bulb.…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This brilliant experiment is another reason why Rutherford qualifies for this award. Because, from his experiment, he discovered Alpha and Beta rays. “Chem Teacher” states that, “Rutherford devised a way to record the location of the alpha particles by surrounding the bombarded object with a sheet coated in ZnS, which would emit of flash of light when hit with an alpha particle. Through previous experiments of shooting alpha particles, Rutherford knew they had considerable mass and speed. He then hypothesized that these particles would penetrate a thin metal foil, although they may scatter slightly because of the charge in the metal atom's subatomic particles. After shooting alpha particles through the thin sheet of gold, Geiger, Marsden and Rutherford discovered that a small proportion of the molecules were scattered at larger than 90° angles. This caused them to conclude that there was a small fraction of the total volume of the atom that held most of the mass of the atom” (Chem Teacher). His nuclear model then replaced the Plum Pudding model.…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Science of the Spud

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Fast-forward to 1729 when, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, another scientifically-minded Englishman, Stephen Gray, discovered that electricity could flow. Before he decided to moisten corks in glass…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    nucleus

    • 1393 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Based on Thomson’s discovery of the electron, Thomson suggested that atoms were spheres of positively charged matter with negatively charged, electrons embedded in them. Later one of his students ernest Rutherford came up with the idea that atoms should consist of a tiny but massive positive nucleus with electrons circling outside it.2 Ernest Rutherford (1871 – 1937) Rutherford obtained this conclusion through a series of experiments known as the alpha particle scattering experiments. During those years, he worked with his co-workers, Geiger and Marsden in the University of Manchester together, they bombarded thin pieces of gold foil with alpha particles. Most of the Alpha particles passed through but a few were deflected at a sharp angle of over 90o their results revealed the presence of atomic nucleus and led to Rutherfords atomic model.3…

    • 1393 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The“Bomb” is the story of the discovery of the atomic bomb during the 1940s. The world was at war during the first half of the year.Germany was trying to be the world leader and had attacked the surrounding countries,like Britain and the Soviet.The Soviet were allied with Britain while the Japanese were allied with Germany. The United States offered support to Britain but remained out of the fight…

    • 186 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The ratio of the box to block is 0.0005512%. The volume of the block is 0.0005512 percent of the volume of the box.…

    • 302 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics