How close does the alpha particle get to the nucleus


In 1911, Ernest Rutherford and his assistants Geiger and Marsden conducted an experiment in which they scattered alpha particles from thin sheets of gold. An alpha particle, having charge +2e and mass 6.64 10-27 kg, is a product of certain radioactive decays. The results of the experiment led Rutherford to the idea that most of the mass of an atom is in a very small nucleus, with electrons in orbit around it, in his planetary model of the atom. Assume an alpha particle, initially very far from a gold nucleus, is fired with a velocity of 1.85 x 107 m/s directly toward the nucleus (charge +79e). How close does the alpha particle get to the nucleus before turning around? Assume the gold nucleus remains stationary.

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Physics: How close does the alpha particle get to the nucleus
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