Question

The kinetic energy of the α-particle incident on the gold foil is doubled. The distance of closest approach will also be doubled.

(a) True

(b) False

The question was posed to me in an interview for internship.

My question is from Alpha-Particle Scattering and Rutherford’s Nuclear Model of Atom in section Atoms of Physics – Class 12

Answer 1

Correct option is (b) False

To elaborate: As the distance of the closest approach is inversely proportional to the kinetic energy of the incident α-particle, so the distance of the closest approach is halved when the kinetic energy of α-particle is doubled.