Rutherford's Gold Leaf experiment with Beta Radiation

[Jozers]

Rutherford's "Gold Leaf" experiment with Beta Radiation

The other day at school I was doing about Rutherford's gold leaf experiment which proved the structure of atoms. In the experiment alpha radiation was fired at a thin piece of gold, resulting in most of the radiation simply passing through however, some radiation reflected back towards the alpha emittor. The alpha radiation had hit the nucleon of the atom, and being positively charged repelled the radiation back.

However, I was then asked by my teacher what would happen if beta radiation was fire towards the gold. At first I though it would be attracted to the nucleon, yet I thought this was probably not correct, as for the same reason the electrons in the atoms outer shells are not attracted towards the nucleon, that there is probably some kind of force opposing this attracting. Then I thought the beta radiation may just simply pass straight through as it is traveling at too great a speed for the attraction to have any effect. And possibly a bit of beta radiation will be repelled by the electrons in the outer shell of the gold atoms.

Perhaps, if someone knows the answer to my problem they could explain.
Thanks
Joe

 

[daveb]

Remember that there are also electrons in the foil, so the betas would be slowed by them (and create a good deal fo bremsstrahlung in the process). Also, the alpha did not hit the nucleon. It was repulsed by the electric field from the nucleon. It takes a great deal of energy for a positive charged particle to actually hit another positive charged particle.

 

[astrokreng]

The results of Rutherford's gold leaf experiment with beta radiation would be different from the results with alpha radiation. This is because beta radiation, which is made up of high-speed electrons, has a much smaller mass and charge compared to alpha particles. Therefore, the beta radiation would not be able to significantly interact with the dense nucleus of the gold atoms, and would simply pass through the gold foil with little to no deflection. This is due to the repulsive force between the negatively charged beta particles and the negatively charged electrons in the gold atoms' outer shells.

In contrast, alpha particles, which have a larger mass and charge, were able to interact with the gold atoms' nuclei and were deflected at various angles, providing evidence for the existence of a small, dense, positively charged nucleus within the atom.

Overall, Rutherford's gold leaf experiment with beta radiation would have further supported the model of the atom with a small, dense nucleus and surrounding electrons in orbit, as it showed the repulsive force between the beta particles and the electrons, and the lack of significant interaction with the nucleus. This experiment, along with others, helped to shape our understanding of the atomic structure and the behavior of subatomic particles.