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Rutherford scattering and the nucleus

Rutherford scattering and the nucleus

Rutherford alpha scattering apparatus with source, slit, gold foil, detector screen, and paths showing most alpha particles straight through, some deflected, and a few backscattered Rutherford fired alpha particles at very thin gold foil and detected where they went afterward. An alpha particle is a helium nucleus, 24He^{4}_{2}\text{He}24​He, so it is relatively massive and positively charged.

The nuclear atom Lesson

  1. A Level
  2. /Physics
  3. /The nuclear atom

Step-by-step lessons on OCR A A Level Physics The nuclear atom. Each one builds up to exam-style questions. Physics is one of the most mathematically demanding A Levels -- at least 40% of the marks across the three papers require maths skills at Level 2 (GCSE) standard or above, so build calculation and graph-handling fluency alongside the conceptual content from the start.

Lessons