-Jordan Heffler and Nate Rose
 Born
August 30, 1871
 Born in Bridgewater, New Zealand
 Died October 19, 1937
 Worked with Hans Geiger and Ernest
Marsden on Gold Foil Experiment
 Famous experiment conducted at the
Physical Labs of the University of
Manchester
Discovered the nature of the atom in 1911 and
that the atom must have a hydrogen nuclei
 Was awarded a Noble Prize for his work in
atomic disintegration in 1908
 Most importantly he unleashed the power of the
atom
 Featured on New Zealand’s 100 dollar bill and
many other nations’ stamps for their appreciation
of his work
 Was elevated to the peerage in the New Years
honors list, giving him the title Lord
 Published 6 books
 Created the unit (rd)

 Because
the experiment was to be
performed in the dark, Rutherford had
the experimenter sit in the lab for an
hour in complete darkness, so his eyes
would be immune
 For accuracy, Rutherford used other foils
• (i.e. lead, aluminum, iron)
 Placed
a zinc sulfide screen behind the
foil so the particles that passed through
could be viewed
 Aimed
a beam of alpha particles at a
piece of gold foil
 Used other different foils, like aluminum
and iron to be more accurate
 Put a zinc sulfide screen behind the gold
foil so the particles that passed through
could be displayed
 According
to Thomson’s theory, each alpha
particle should have passed directly
through the piece of gold foil with some
small deflections
• Alpha particles are heavy, and Thomson concluded
that the charge in an atom is widely spread, so they
should have mainly gone right through the foil
 Most
models passed right through, but
some were deflected at a slight angle
 1 in 20,000 particles deflected off of the foil
and back at the beam
• An atom must contain more than empty
space and electrons moving around
• The atom must have a positively charged
center which is much of the atom’s mass
• Alpha particles are heavy and positively
charged, and because some were
deflected, then a big part of the atom
must be heavy and also positively
charged
• Only a minimal amount of particles were
swerved from their path when they passed
through the gold foil, and even fewer bounced
back
• The positively charged center must be very
small compared to the relative size of the atom
• Overall, most of the mass of an atom is found in
the small, positively charged nucleus, and the
rest of the atom was mostly empty space
• Electrons are grouped surrounding the nucleus
• Atoms aren’t just one single particle, they’re
made up of smaller subatomic particles
• Proved Thomson wrong, updated the “current”
model of the atom
 Concluded that the atom contained a dense nucleus,
rather than just a lot of empty space



Dingrando, Laurel. "Subatomic Particles and the
Nuclear Atom." Chemistry: Matter and Change.
New York, NY: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2005. 92-97.
Print.
"Ernest Rutherford - Scientist Supreme." Ernest
Rutherford - Scientist Supreme. N.p., n.d.Web. 26
Oct. 2013.
<http://www.rutherford.org.nz/biography.htm>.
"The Gold Foil Experiment." The Gold Foil
Experiment. N.p., n.d.Web. 26 Oct. 2013.
<http://myweb.usf.edu/~mhight/goldfoil.html>.