In 1910 Rutherford performed a classic experiment in which he directed a beam of alpha particles at ...

---

In 1910 Rutherford performed a classic experiment in which he directed a beam of alpha particles at a thin gold foil. He unexpectedly observed a few of the particles scattered almost directly backward. This result was not consistent with then current models of atomic structure and led Rutherford to propose the existence of a very dense concentration of positive charge at the center of an atom—the atomic nucleus. The alpha particle has a charge of +2e and the gold nucleus a charge of +79e. Suppose that an alpha particle is initially a great distance from the gold, has a kinetic energy of 5.87 MeV (5.87*10^6 eV), and is headed directly at a gold nucleus. How close will the particle come to the center of the nucleus? Treat the nucleus and the alpha particle as point charges.