Editing Rutherford scattering experiments (section)

{{Short description|Experiments proving existence of atomic nuclei}}
{{use British English|date=October 2024}}
[[File:Geiger-Marsden apparatus photo.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|A replica of an apparatus used by Geiger and Marsden to measure alpha particle scattering in a 1913 experiment]]
The '''Rutherford scattering experiments''' were a landmark series of [[experiments]] by which [[scientists]] learned  that every [[atom]] has a [[Atomic nucleus|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 [[scattering|scattered]] when it strikes a thin [[Foil (metal)|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<ref name="Rutherford 1911">{{cite journal | author=E. Rutherford |author-link=Ernest Rutherford | title=LXXIX. The Scattering of α and β Particles by Matter and the Structure of the Atom | journal=The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science | volume=21 | issue=125 | year=1911 | issn=1941-5982 | url=https://web.mit.edu/8.13/8.13c/references-fall/rutherford/rutherford-scattering-of-alpha-and-beta-particles.pdf |doi=10.1080/14786440508637080 | pages=669–688}}</ref> 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 particle]]s by the [[Coulomb interaction]].  The paper also initiated the development of the planetary [[Rutherford model]] of the atom and eventually the [[Bohr model]].

Rutherford scattering is now exploited by the [[materials science]] community in an [[analytical technique]] called [[Rutherford backscattering]].