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Why did Rutherford select a gold foil in his \alpha-ray scattering experiment?
 

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 A light metal cannot be used because on being hit by fast moving \alpha-particle, the atom of light metal will be simply pushed forward and no scattering can occur. Gold is heavy metal and for the scattering experiment, Rutherford wanted a metal sheet which could be as thin as possible. Gold is the most malleable of all known metals. It can easily be converted into very thin sheets. Hence, Rutherford selected a gold foil for his alpha-ray scattering experiment.

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