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Hasal
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How did Rutherford prepare the gold leaf for the gold leaf test (at that time)
What have you found in your reading and research so far? Please post links to your sources. Thank you.Hasal said:How did Rutherford prepare the gold leaf for the gold leaf test (at that time)
Dear sir, I am a high school student, so this is for schoolwork.berkeman said:Welcome to PF.What have you found in your reading and research so far? Please post links to your sources. Thank you.
Also, is this question for schoolwork?
Thank you; I've moved your thread to the schoolwork forums now.Hasal said:Dear sir, I am a high school student, so this is for schoolwork.
Yes, so they used an evacuated tube for the experiments, it appears:Hasal said:While learning about Rutherford's gold leaf test in the study of atomic structure, I was taught that it was done by shining a beam of accelerated alpha rays on a gold leaf. Alpha rays can be blocked by air or by paper.
That's an interesting question. I'm still looking for that information for that time period...Hasal said:So how did he make the thickness of the gold so small?(thikness of gold foil- 0.6 μm)
Is it possible to believe that the technology called gold beating has been used for this?
Yes. This is very old tech.Hasal said:Is it possible to believe that the technology called gold beating has been used for this?
Rutherford himself did not prepare the gold leaf; rather, he used commercially available gold leaf, which is extremely thin gold foil. The gold leaf was prepared by goldbeaters who hammered gold into thin sheets.
Gold leaf was chosen because it can be made extremely thin, allowing alpha particles to pass through it. This thinness was crucial for observing the deflection of alpha particles, as thicker materials would absorb or block the particles entirely.
The gold leaf used in Rutherford's experiment was about 0.000004 inches (approximately 100 nanometers) thick. This thinness allowed alpha particles to pass through with minimal obstruction, making it ideal for the scattering experiment.
Yes, special tools such as fine tweezers and brushes were used to handle the delicate gold leaf. The gold leaf is so thin that it can be easily torn or damaged, so careful handling was essential.
The preparation of the gold leaf did not significantly affect the results of the experiment. The key factor was the thinness of the gold leaf, which allowed the alpha particles to pass through and be scattered, leading to the groundbreaking discovery of the atomic nucleus.