Historically, data regarding quantum phenomena has been obtained from two main sources. Firstly, from the study of spectroscopic lines, and, secondly, from scattering experiments. We have already deve...Historically, data regarding quantum phenomena has been obtained from two main sources. Firstly, from the study of spectroscopic lines, and, secondly, from scattering experiments. We have already developed theories that account for some aspects of the spectra of hydrogen, and hydrogen-like, atoms. Let us now examine the quantum theory of scattering.
Almost everything we know about nuclei and elementary particles has been discovered in scattering experiments, from Rutherford’s surprise at finding that atoms have their mass and positive charge conc...Almost everything we know about nuclei and elementary particles has been discovered in scattering experiments, from Rutherford’s surprise at finding that atoms have their mass and positive charge concentrated in almost point-like nuclei, to the more recent discoveries, on a far smaller length scale, that protons and neutrons are themselves made up of apparently point-like quarks.
