The gold foil Rutherford used in his scattering experiment had a thickness of approximately 4×10^−3 mm. If a single gold atom has a diameter of 2.9 x10^-8cm , how many atoms thick was Rutherford's foil? Express your answer using one significant figure.

1 answer

assuming rectangular packing of atoms, just divide by the diameter of a gold atom; the sheet was
4*10^-3mm / 2.9*10^-7mm = 13793 atoms thick