This Is What It Looks Like When Atoms Collide

Summary by Krater

The creator builds a cloud chamber using a fish tank, felt, and alcohol to visually demonstrate Rutherford's gold foil experiment, showing alpha particles passing through gold foil and proving that atoms have dense, tiny nuclei with mostly empty space.

From the video

Answers: How can you build a cloud chamber to visualize alpha particles and Rutherford's gold foil experiment at home?

• cloud chamber construction
• alpha particles and radiation
• Rutherford gold foil experiment
• atomic structure

What it concludes

• Americium-241 emits mostly alpha radiation at about 85% and gamma rays at about 13%.
• Americium-241 has a half-life of about 432 years.
• Alpha particles leave big solid straight lines in cloud chambers, whereas gamma rays make tiny curved paths.
• 99.4% of the mass of gold atoms is concentrated at a single point in the center called the nucleus, proving that atoms are mostly empty space.
• When alpha particles hit a nucleus, they scatter and can bounce straight back toward the source.