in 1992, Rutherford shot a beam of positively charged alpha
partiles into a sheet of gold. some deflected greatly while other
were slightly deflected only.
d) if rutherford were design the experiment using lithium
instead of gold, would he have made the same discovery? explain
your answer
if he changes it to lithium, wouldnt there be no change as the
nucleus would just be more "squeezed" together since in a metallic
bond there would just be a sea of electron? so the deflection would
be the same? This question seems to be of a higher level question,
it seems like there are many theories to the answer for this
question which makes this question extremely complicated for a sec
3 student
My sister thinks there is no difference too:
"I originally thought with lithium, there would be more particles
going through, due to the larger atomic radius/space between each
nucleus. However, my tuition teacher says there would be greater
deflection for gold, due to the greater number of protons in each
nucleus (and therefore greater charge and greater repulsion between
the protons and alpha particles). While I can accept that the angle
of deflection when using gold may be greater because the nucleus of
gold has a greater charge, wouldn't the ratio of deflected
particles to particles that go through be the same since that is
merely dependent on the ratio of "space taken up by the nucleus"
versus "empty space"? So even though the nucleus of gold is bigger,
at the same time the spaces in between are also greater, so overall
there would be the same amount of deflection vs particles going
through for both?"
Firstly, in atomic structure we only learnt about electrons,
protons and neutrons, not to mention nucleon. but that does not
prepare us for this complicated question at all! so im quite
worried that these types of questions will be tested for my EOYs or
O levels in the upcoming levels. i asked my tutor and it seemed
like it was extremely complicated even for him. so if its possible
could any of u guys help me check if this is O level standard cos
this seems to be of a "higher level" thanks so much for the
help
BTW, if its an O level standard question pls explain the reasons
behind the answer so that ill be able to understand this well.
thanks so much for the help given. Also if a question like this
were to come out in a test or exam pls state on how to tackle it
thanks. :)