Free interactive chemistry · SIM-ATOM-004

Rutherford scattering

Alpha particles are fired at gold foil. A few bounce back — evidence for a tiny, dense nucleus.

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How to use this simulation

Choose the model: “Nuclear atom” (Rutherford) or “Plum pudding” (Thomson).
Set the α-particle energy and how many particles to count.
Press play and watch the tracks.
Read the detector counts at each angle in the “Counts” panel.

What to notice

With a nucleus, most particles go straight through but a few bounce back.
The plum-pudding model can never bounce a particle back.

Try this

Raise the energy. Does the closest-approach distance go up or down?

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