Rutherford Scattering

Rutherford scattering is the generalised name for the area of physics to do with electron scattering in a material. Protons, when fired at a target such as a piece of gold foil, scatter in directions determined by how close they get to the protonic nucleus of the gold atoms. This was later used to help prove that the plum pudding model chosen by physics in Rutherford's time was inaccurate, and used to help develop a new model. The equation for determining the max distance to a nucleus with Z protons in it is: