Question

(i) In Rutherford scattering experiment, draw the trajectory traced by o-particles in the coulomb field of target nucleus and explain how this led to estimate tire size of the nucleus.

(ii) Describe briefly how wave nature of moving electrons was established experimentally.

(iii) Estimate the ratio of de Broglie wavelengths associated with deuterons and o-particles when they are accelerated from rest through the same accelerating potential V.

Answer 1

(i) The trajectory, traced by the  α-particles in the Coulomb field of target nucleus, has the form  shown below.

where K  =  kinetic energy of the α-particles when they are far away from the target nuclei.

(ii) The wave nature of moving electrons was established through the Davisson-Germer experiment.

In this experiment, it was observed that a beam of electrons, when scattered by a nickel target, showed 'maxima' in certain directions; (like the 'maxima' observed in interference/diffraction experirnents with light.)