Rutherford scattering experiments
series of experiments (1908–1913) by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, directed by Ernest Rutherford, at the University of Manchester, proving the existence of the atomic nucleus through alpha particle scattering on gold foil
The Rutherford scattering experiments were a landmark series of experiments by which scientists learned that every atom has a nucleus where all of its positive charge and most of its mass is concentrated. They deduced this after measuring how an alpha particle beam is scattered when it strikes a thin metal foil. The experiments were performed between 1906 and 1913 by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden under the direction of Ernest Rutherford at the Physical Laboratories of the University of Manchester.
The physical phenomenon was explained by Rutherford in a classic 1911 paper that eventually led to the widespread use of scattering in particle physics to study subatomic matter. Rutherford scattering or Coulomb scattering is the elastic scattering of charged particles by the Coulomb interaction. The paper also initiated the development of the planetary Rutherford model of the atom and eventually the Bohr model.
Summary
Thomson's model of the atom
The prevailing model of atomic structure before Rutherford's experiments was devised by J. J. Thomson. Thomson had discovered the electron through his work on cathode rays and proposed that they existed within atoms, and an electric current is electrons hopping from one atom to an adjacent one in a series. There logically had to be a commensurate amount of positive charge to balance the negative charge of the electrons and hold those electrons together. Having no idea what the source of this positive charge was, he tentatively proposed that the positive charge was everywhere in the atom, adopting a spherical shape for simplicity.
The public source identifies “Rutherford scattering experiments” as series of experiments (1908–1913) by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, directed by Ernest Rutherford, at the University of Manchester, proving the existence of the atomic nucleus through alpha particle scattering on gold foil. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Rutherford, scattering and experiments.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1648751. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1906, 1913 and 1911.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rutherford scattering experiments” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.