What was the chance that an alpha particle bounced directly back at #"180"^@"# in Ruthorford's metal foil experiments?
1 Answer
The chances are 1 out of 8000 attempts. In Ernest Rutherford's own words:
"It was quite the most incredible event that has ever happened to me in my life. It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch [artillery] shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you."
http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys314/lectures/rutherford/rutherford.html
http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/history/rutherford.html
For perspective, the following image is of a painting titled Shop for Machining 15-inch Shells by Anna Airy.
