Rutherford scattering

The geometry of Rutherford scattering of α particles off gold nuclei is a hyperbolic trajectory as a function of the impact parameter. See Wikipedia or Hyperphysics. These figures were used in a presentation on Rutherford’s discovery of the nucleus.

Setup of the gold foil experiment:

Hyperbolic trajectory of an α particle in Rutherford scattering, following Rutherford’s historic 1911 paper:

Extreme backscattering:

Triangle NOA to compute the angle of deviation φ = π – 2θ

Several hyperbolic trajectories in Rutherford scattering:

Compound vs. single scattering:

Edit and compile if you like:

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% Author: Izaak Neutelings (July 2017)
% Sources:
%   https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14786440508637080
%   https://indico.cern.ch/event/1126814/contributions/4729554/attachments/2386887/4079372/Izaak_paper_reading_Rutherford_nucleus_20170713_v5.pdf
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