Rutherford's Gold Foil Experiment?

Question

Hi,

For Ernest Rutherford's Gold Foil Experiment, WHY DID SOME ALPHA PARTICLES BOUNCED BACK FROM THE GOLD FOIL??

Answer 1

just studied this...the foil is dense enough to block some but not all of the A particles

Answer 2

Atoms used to be thought to be solid objects and as such alpha particles should not have passed through the gold foil as they are easily absorbed. It was thought that all alpha particles should be absorbed or reflected back

When rutherford carried out this experiment it showed that most particles passed through the gold and that atoms must be mostly space. The few alpha particles that bounce back are repelled back by the nuclei of the gold atoms because both the nuclei and the alpha particles are positively charged,

Answer 3

It's all in the article below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_foil_experiment

Done by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden in 1909 at the University of Manchester under the direction of the brilliant New Zealand scientist Ernest Rutherford, Nobel laureate. (Later Ernest Lord Rutherford, first Baron Rutherford of Nelson)

Answer 4

Becasue alpha particles are positively charged. It has a charge and mass unlike the other wich has a charge of -1 and 0. Only th nuetrons and electrons went through and the alpha bounced back which means that a atom has a nucleus and that an atom is made up of mostly empty space about 99.9%

Answer 5

because as radioactive particles go, alpha particals are big and bulky. Some of them have to hit som of the gold atoms nucleus dead on, and those are the ones that bounce back.

Answer 6

the alpha particles bounced off the gold nuclei