Resumen de Turning Plastic Into Gold: An Analogy To Demonstrate the Rutherford Gold Foil Experiment.
An in-class demonstration designed to be an analogy to the Rutherford�Geiger�Marsden gold foil experiment is described. A laser pointer, two picture frames, and a sheet of plastic are all that is required to perform the demonstration. The demonstration is presented in two stages, (i) representing what Rutherford expected his researchers to find and (ii) then representing what they actually found. The demonstration can be used to stimulate a discussion of the way that scientific theory changes as new knowledge advances the state of the art and of the way that discrepant events often result in new insight into science and nature.
