Today students were tasked with becoming Rutherford and using their knowledge to help them figure out a shape they could not see. Students bounced marbles off of a shape under a piece of cardboard in the same way that Rutherford bounced alpha particles off of a nucleus to help them try to determine the shape. Students considered the trajectory and reflection angle while doing this. We will revisit this concept today with the following PhET simulation:
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/rutherford-scattering
*You must have Java installed to run this application. Please visit Java.com for the free download!
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/rutherford-scattering
*You must have Java installed to run this application. Please visit Java.com for the free download!