Suppose you repeated Rutherford’s scattering experiment with a thin sheet of solid hydrogen in place of the gold foil. (Hydrogen is a solid at temperatures below 14.0 K.) The nucleus of a hydrogen atom is a single proton, with about onefourth the mass of an alpha particle. Compared to the original experiment with gold foil, would you expect the alpha particles in this experiment to undergo (i) more large-angle scattering; (ii) the same amount of large-angle scattering; or (iii) less large-angle scattering?

Suppose you repeated Rutherford’s scattering experiment with a thin sheet of solid hydrogen in place of the gold foil. (Hydrogen is a solid at temperatures below 14.0 K.) The nucleus of a hydrogen atom is a single proton, with about onefourth the mass of an alpha particle. Compared to the original experiment with gold foil, would you expect the alpha particles in this experiment to undergo (i) more large-angle scattering; (ii) the same amount of large-angle scattering; or (iii) less large-angle scattering?

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