Atomic Mass :: essays research papers

Laboratory Write-UpThe game in which we participated simulates the early efforts of scientists because they had very little to work with. They too had to guess the sizing and shape of the atom. In 1911, Rutherford conducted a series of experiments in which he bombarded a piece of gold foil with positively charged alpha particles emitted by hot material. Most of the particles passed through the foil undisturbed, suggesting that the foil was made up mostly of empty post rather than of a sheet of solid atoms. Some alpha particles, however, "bounced back," indicating the presence of solid matter. Atomic particles, Rutherfords work showed, consisted primarily of empty space surrounding a well-defined central core called a nucleus. The game portrays the wits as the alpha beams that bounce off the foam cores. The foam cores represent the nucleus, and the empty space shows how little space the nucleus actually takes up. The game we play can be different than what Rutherford experi mented with is because the nucleus is much smaller than actually in the game. The foam wasnt even in proportion with the size of the space used for the game. Early, atomic scientists actually did not put one across the opportunity of just peeking under the board to see the shape. They had to go with the results that they had. Thats why it was so principal(prenominal) for them to be precise because if they did anything wrong then this would invalidate their research. They needed to be real precise because they were not as fortunate as scientists today who have technology to back them up. Scientists today do not necessarily have the opportunity to just peak under the board to obtain results.