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Grade 12Physical Chemistry

In Rutherford’s experiment, generally the thin foil of heavy atoms, like gold, platinum etc. have been used to be bombarded by the a-particles. If the thin foil of light atoms like aluminium etc. is used, what difference would be observed from the above results ?

Profile image of sudhanshu
12 Years agoGrade 12
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2 Answers

Profile image of Gaurav
11 Years ago
Hello Student
Al is less malleable and ductile as compare to gold. Gold is the most malleable metal in fact. We need a very- very thin sheet of metal so that alpha particles can easily penetrate through the foil. Aluminum sheet if used, will block the path of a particle as they have low penetrating power
Profile image of Noor
8 Years ago
If light atoms like aluminium etc.  are used their nuclei will be light and moreover, they will have small positive charge on the nucleus. Hence , the number of particles deflected back and those deflected through some angles will be negligible.