Rutherford's Experiment, in Which He Fired Alpha Particles of 7

question 82

Multiple Choice

Rutherford's experiment, in which he fired alpha particles of 7.7 MeV kinetic energy at a thin gold foil, showed that nuclei were very much smaller than the size of an atom because

• A) some alpha particles passed through the foil undeflected.
• B) some alpha particles were deflected backwards.
• C) some alpha particles were captured by the gold nuclei.
• D) the alpha particles could not get closer than 10−¹⁰ m to the gold nuclei.
• E) the alpha particles split into deuterium nuclei when they encountered the gold nuclei.