PHYSICS PROJECT

ALPHA PARTICLE SCATTERING EXPERIMENT AND

AND
RUTHERFORDS ATOMIC MODEL
AND
BOHRS MODEL

BY
WRICK MAJUMDAR
CLASS 12
SECTION A
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank my physics teacher Mr Anas to give me this

opportunity to work on this wonderful project and provide me
with all the important knowledge and sources

I would also like to thank my principal, vice principal and the entire
school management for their able guidance

Last but not the least I would like to thank my parents for providing
me with all the materials needed and for their support
 INDEX

INDEX
EXPLAINATION OF ALPHA
SCATTERING EXPERIMENT
EXPLAINATION OF
RUTHERFORDS ATOMIC MODEL
EXPLAINATION OF BOHRS
MODEL
CONCLUSION
 ALPHA PARTICLE SCATERRING EXPERIMENT

Ernest Rutherford, a British scientist who won the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1908, conducted
the alpha particle scattering experiment. He gave the Rutherford Atomic Model based on his
observation and proposed the atomic structure of elements. He was interested in knowing how
the electrons are placed in an atom. Still, the 𝛂-particle scattering experiment gave an
unexpected result that led to the discovery of the atom’s nucleus. The major components of the
alpha scattering experiment were gold foil (100 nm thickness), zinc sulfide screen, and fast-
moving alpha particles. In his experiment, he directed high-energy streams of alpha particles on
a thin sheet of gold foil to study the trajectory of these particles, and he placed a fluorescent zinc
sulfide screen around the delicate gold foil To study the deflection caused to the α-particles. The
alpha Particle scattering experiments indicate an atom’s structure.

The major components of the alpha scattering experiment were:

 Gold foil: A thin sheet of gold foil (100 nm) was selected as it has the thinnest layer of
about 1000 atoms.
 𝛂-particles: they are doubly-charged helium ions with considerably high energy and a
mass of 4u, which is more than the protons of a gold atom.
 Zinc sulfide screen: a fluorescent sheet of zinc sulfide was placed around the foil to
study the deflections.
 𝛂-particle emitter: generates a high energy beam of 𝛂-particles.

In this experiment, Rutherford bombarded a thin sheet of gold foil with high-energy streams of
fast-moving 𝛂-particles from the emitter. He expected that 𝛂-particles would be deflected by
small angles only as the 𝛂-particles were much heavier (4 u mass) than the protons of a gold
atom, but it gave unexpected results. He saw that:

 Small angles deflected some particles.

 Most particles passed straight(undeflected) through the gold foil
 Few particles are deflected by large angles, and some even rebound(1 out of 12000
particles)
OBSERVATIONS FOR THE EXPERIMENT

In this experiment, Rutherford bombarded a thin sheet of gold foil with high-energy streams of
fast-moving 𝛂-particles from the emitter. He expected that 𝛂-particles would be deflected by
small angles only as the 𝛂-particles were much heavier (4 u mass) than the protons of a gold
atom, but it gave unexpected results. He saw that:

 Small angles deflected some particles.

 Most particles passed straight(undeflected) through the gold foil
 Few particles are deflected by large angles, and some even rebound(1 out of 12000
particles)

The observations made by Rutherford led him to conclude

that: A major fraction of the α-particles bombarded towards
the gold sheet passed through the sheet without any
deflection, and hence most of the space in an atom is empty.
 RUTHERFORDS ATOMIC MODEL

The model described the atom as a tiny, dense, positively charged core called a
nucleus, in which nearly all the mass is concentrated, around which the light,
negative constituents, called electrons, circulate at some distance, much like planets
revolving around the Sun.

He proposed Rutherford’s atomic model, which indicated the atomic structure of elements.

Rutherford put forward the nuclear model based on the experiment, which states:

 There is a positively charged center of the atom called the nucleus, where all the atom’s
positive charge is concentrated. It is very small and around 105 times less than the atom’s
radius. All the mass of the atom is concentrated here.
 The negatively charged particles surround the atom and revolve at a very high speed in
fixed circular paths called orbits.
 The positively charged particles (protons) and negatively charged particles (electrons)
are held together by a powerful electrostatic force of attraction.

DRAWBACKS OF THE ATOMIC MODEL

There are some limitations of the Rutherford Atomic Model as it failed to explain certain things:

 According to Rutherford, electrons move in circular orbits around the nucleus. We know
by Maxwell’s theory that any charged particle undergoing circular motion will experience
acceleration and emit electromagnetic radiation. This would lead to a shrinking orbit as
the revolving electron will lose the energy and collapse to fall into the nucleus.
 Rutherford could not explain the stability of atoms, as it highly contradicts the Maxwell
theory. According to the calculations, the electron will collapse in less than 10 -8 seconds,
making the electron highly unstable.
 Rutherford did not mention anything about the arrangement of electrons in the orbits,
which is also one drawback.
 BOHRS MODEL

the Bohr model or Rutherford–Bohr model of the atom, presented by Niels Bohr and Ernest
Rutherford in 1913, consists of a small, dense nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons. It
is analogous to the structure of the Solar System, but with attraction provided by electrostatic
force rather than gravity, and with the electron energies quantized (assuming only discrete
values).
In the history of atomic physics, it followed, and ultimately replaced, several earlier models,
including Joseph Larmor's Solar System model (1897), Jean Perrin's model (1901),[2] the cubical
model (1902), Hantaro Nagaoka's Saturnian model (1904), the plum pudding
model (1904), Arthur Haas's quantum model (1910), the Rutherford model (1911), and John
William Nicholson's nuclear quantum model (1912). The improvement over the 1911 Rutherford
model mainly concerned the new quantum mechanical interpretation introduced by Haas and
Nicholson, but forsaking any attempt to explain radiation according to classical physics.
The model's key success lay in explaining the Rydberg formula for hydrogen's spectral emission
lines. While the Rydberg formula had been known experimentally, it did not gain a theoretical
basis until the Bohr model was introduced. Not only did the Bohr model explain the reasons for
the structure of the Rydberg formula, it also provided a justification for the fundamental physical
constants that make up the formula's empirical results.

The Bohr model is a relatively primitive model of the hydrogen atom, compared to the valence
shell model. As a theory, it can be derived as a first-order approximation of the hydrogen atom
using the broader and much more accurate quantum mechanics and thus may be considered to
be an obsolete scientific theory. However, because of its simplicity, and its correct results for
selected systems (see below for application), the Bohr model is still commonly taught to
introduce students to quantum mechanics or energy level diagrams before moving on to the
more accurate, but more complex, valence shell atom. A related quantum model was proposed
by Arthur Erich Haas in 1910 but was rejected until the 1911 Solvay Congress where it was
thoroughly discussed.[3] The quantum theory of the period between Planck's discovery of the
quantum (1900) and the advent of a mature quantum mechanics (1925) is often referred to as
the old quantum theory.

CONCLUSION

Rutherford’s alpha-particle scattering experiment explained a lot of theories that the Thomson
model failed to. In the experiment, significant components were gold foil, alpha particles, and zinc
sulfide screen on which deflection of atoms was studied. 𝛂-particles were made to fall on the
gold foil, and the trajectory of these particles after interaction with the foil was observed to give
The Rutherford Atomic Model. The alpha particle scattering experiment was able to indicate the
atom’s structure, and it led to the discovery of the nucleus, a densely concentrated positively
charged center of the atom. It also stated that there is a lot of space inside the atom, and the
electrons revolve around atoms in orbits. Although it explained a lot of theories, it failed to explain
the stability of atoms, as it contradicted Maxwell’s theory. Rutherford’s model did not explain the
arrangement of electrons in orbit as well; hence, this model has certain limitations.

According to the Bohr Atomic model, a small positively charged nucleus is

surrounded by revolving negatively charged electrons in fixed orbits. He concluded
that electron will have more energy if it is located away from the nucleus whereas
electrons will have less energy if it located near the nucleus.