In Rutherford's alpha-particle scattering experiment, only a few alpha particles rebound back because A. The size of gold nucleus is very small as compared to the size of gold atom. B. Alpha particle and gold nucleus have equal charge. C. The impact parameter is minimum for a few alpha particles. D. A few alpha particles have very high kinetic energy. E. Only a few alpha particles undergo head-on collision with the n

Step-by-step solution

In Rutherford's alpha-particle scattering experiment, the rebounding of alpha particles (scattering angle 180^ ) occurs when they undergo a head-on collision with the gold nucleus. A head-on collision corresponds to an impact parameter close to zero. Since the size of the gold nucleus ( 10⁻¹⁵ m) is extremely small compared to the size of the gold atom ( 10⁻¹⁰ m), the effective target area is very small. Consequently, the probability of an alpha particle having a minimum impact parameter is very low. Thus, only a fe