Bartleby Related Questions Icon

Related questions

Question
An alpha particle reaches 28 fm in a gold foil experiment before it lost all of its kinetic energy. Estimate the kinetic energy of the alpha particle
expand button
Transcribed Image Text:An alpha particle reaches 28 fm in a gold foil experiment before it lost all of its kinetic energy. Estimate the kinetic energy of the alpha particle
Expert Solution
Check Mark
Concept and Principle:
  • Since the nucleus is positively charged it will repel any positive charge that gets close to it. Thus a positive particle will slowly lose its kinetic energy when it gets closer to the nucleus and will be converted into potential energy.

 

  • The distance of the closest approach is the distance at which the particle loses all its kinetic energy. it is given by,

d=14πε0zZe2K

Here ε0 is the permittivity of free space, z is the atomic number of the projectile, Z is the atomic number of the target, e is the charge of the electron, and K is the kinetic energy of the projectile.