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Lecture 2

The Rutherford experiments used low energy alpha particles such that the minimum scattering distances were always larger than the sum of the nuclear radii of the projectile and target. The complete agreement between experimental results and the point charge scattering cross section formula indicates scattering is consistent with Gauss's law of electrostatics and point charges. The occurrence of backward scattering proved the target mass is greater than the projectile mass, establishing the atomic nucleus as a compact object and disproving Thomson's "plum pudding" atomic model. The dependence of the Rutherford cross section on atomic number Z allowed substantiating the periodic table.

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Rainesius Dohling
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11 views

Lecture 2

The Rutherford experiments used low energy alpha particles such that the minimum scattering distances were always larger than the sum of the nuclear radii of the projectile and target. The complete agreement between experimental results and the point charge scattering cross section formula indicates scattering is consistent with Gauss's law of electrostatics and point charges. The occurrence of backward scattering proved the target mass is greater than the projectile mass, establishing the atomic nucleus as a compact object and disproving Thomson's "plum pudding" atomic model. The dependence of the Rutherford cross section on atomic number Z allowed substantiating the periodic table.

Uploaded by

Rainesius Dohling
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lecture 2

Consequences from Rutherford experiments and historic significance


2
d  Z 1 Z 2 e 2
 1
  
d  4 E  Sin4 
2
Consequences from Rutherford experiments and historic
significance

The energies used by Rutherford and his collaborators for the α particles were very
small that for all scattering angles the minimum scattering distances d were large
compared to the sum of nuclear radii of projectiles and targets.

d> r1 +r 2
r1 is the radius of the projectile

r2 is the radius of the target


2. There was complete agreement between experimental results and the point
charge scattering cross section formula which indicates that it is in accordance with
Gauss ‘s law of electrostatics , thereby we can infer that a finite charge distribution
in external space beyond the charges cannot be distinguished from a point charge
with an 1/r potential.

3. The occurrence of backward scattering angles when studied from kinematics


proves that the mass of the target should be greater than the mass of the projectile.

4. The proof that the atomic nucleus is a compact object has established that
Thomson’ s model of the atom( plum pudding ) has failed.

5. The dependence of the Rutherford cross section on the atomic number Z has
been used to check the correct assignment of Z to chemical elements and their
positioning in the periodic table , thereby substantiating the use of characteristic X-
ray spectra together with Moseley s law.
If we say radius of a sphere is R , then we understand that it’s a solid sphere
something like a pendulum bob.
But if the sphere is not a solid by itself, its made up of nucleons. The more is the
number of nucleons the larger is the sphere.

Mass
 1
Volume R  r0 A 3

A

4 3
R
3

r0 is the radius of the nucleon.

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