Rutherford Scattering Rutherford Scattering Alpha particles from a radioactive source were allowed to strike a thin gold foil.
Alpha particles produce a tiny, but visible flash of light when they strike a fluorescent screen.
Surprisingly, alpha particles were found at large deflection angles and some were even found to be back-scattered. This experiment showed that the positive matter in atoms was concentrated in an incredibly small volume and gave birth to the idea of the nuclear atom. In so doing, it represented one of the great turning points in our understanding of nature. The scattering of alpha particles from nuclei can be modeled from the Coulomb force and treated as an orbit. The scattering process can be treated statistically in terms of the cross-section for interaction with a nucleus which is considered to be a point charge Ze.