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Geiger and Marsden's Apparatus

Geiger and Marsden conducted an experiment bombarding gold foil with alpha particles. They found the particles scattered at larger angles than expected, leading Rutherford to deduce atoms have small, dense nuclei containing their positive charge and mass, with electrons orbiting the nucleus like planets around the Sun, establishing the modern atomic model.

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34 views1 page

Geiger and Marsden's Apparatus

Geiger and Marsden conducted an experiment bombarding gold foil with alpha particles. They found the particles scattered at larger angles than expected, leading Rutherford to deduce atoms have small, dense nuclei containing their positive charge and mass, with electrons orbiting the nucleus like planets around the Sun, establishing the modern atomic model.

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skruzer
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Geiger and Marsdens

apparatus
AT O M I C ST RUCT URE
Developing the atomic
model
G At end of the 19th century, sci enti sts
thought that the atomwasa posi ti vely
charged blob wi th negati vely charged
electronsscattered throughout i t. At
the suggesti on of Bri ti sh physi ci st
Ernest Rutherford, JohannesGei ger
and Earnest Marsden conducted an
experi ment that changed thi svi ew of
the atomi c model.
G Sci enti stshad recently di scovered that
some elementswere radi oacti ve they
emi tted parti clesfrom thei r nuclei asa
result of nuclear i nstabi li ty. O ne type
of parti cle, alpha radi ati on, i sposi ti vely
charged. Gei ger and Marsden
i nvesti gated how alpha particles
scattered by bombardi ng them agai nst
thi n sheetsof gold, a metal wi th a hi gh
atomic mass.
G They used a tube of radon, a
radi oacti ve element, i n a metal block
( a) asthe source of a narrow beam of
alpha parti clesand placed a sheet of
gold foi l i n the center of thei r
apparatus( b) . After they bombarded
the sheet, they detected the pattern of
alpha parti cle scatteri ng by usi ng a
fluorescent screen ( c) placed at the
focal length of a mi croscope ( d) .
G I f the exi sti ng model had been correct,
all of the parti cleswould have been
found wi thi n a fracti on of a degree of
the beam. But Gei ger and Marsden
found that alpha parti cleswere
scattered at anglesaslarge as140.
G From thi sexperi ment, Rutherford
deduced that the posi ti vely charged
alpha parti cleshad come i nto the
repulsi ve fi eld of a hi ghly concentrated
posi ti ve charge at the center of the
atom. He, therefore, concluded that an
atom hasa small dense nucleusi n
whi ch all of the posi ti ve charge and
most of the massi sconcentrated.
Negati vely charged electronssurround
the nucleus si mi lar to the way the
planetsorbi t the Sun.
alpha particle
atom
atomic mass
Key words
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