How did Rutherford prove the existence of protons?
2 Answers
Got me....
Explanation:
The scientist rarely proves anything much. He or she provides or assesses EVIDENCE for a particular model of reality that can (i) explain observed behaviour, and (ii) can predict future behaviour under changed conditions....
As regards our view of the atom, this is informed and revized by experiment. AS to the current model of the atom, many early experiments have established that the atom contains a small nuclear core that contains most of the mass of the atom. Later experiments established that the formally positively charged nucleus, which possessed most of the mass of the atom, had a counter electronic charge to the circling electrons. Transfer and sharing of electrons between nuclei could explain much of chemistry, and reactivity.
See this site for a bit of background. And I do not know at which level you are.
You can perform Ernest Rutherford's alpha particle scattering experiment.
Explanation:
The experiment involves firing a beam of alpha particles (which are essentially helium nuclei) at a thin sheet of gold foil. If the atoms in the gold foil have no nucleus all of the positively charged alpha particles will pass straight through. However, this is not the case. Many of the alpha particles are scattered and some are deflected right back to their source.
This is because the nuclei in the atoms contain concentrated positive charge (protons) which repel the positively charged alpha particles.
In conclusion, the scattered particles prove the existence of a concentrated positive charge within an atom - the nucleus.
