When these fuse, the result breaks into three alpha particles.

当这些融合时，结果分裂成三个阿尔法粒子。

Rutherford and his colleagues fired alpha particles, which are positively charged, at thin gold foil.

卢瑟福和他的同事们向薄金箔发射带正电的 α 粒子。

So most of the alpha particles did pass straight through the foil.

所以大多数 α 粒子确实直接穿过箔片。

But, to Rutherford’s surprise, some alpha particles were deflected.

但是，令卢瑟福惊讶的是，一些阿尔法粒子发生了偏转。

Now alpha particles have relatively low energy, they're pretty heavy as particles go.

现在 alpha 粒子的能量相对较低， 随着粒子的移动， 它们非常重。

U-238 spontaneously decays in to thorium-234, in a process that releases something called an alpha particle.

U-238 自发衰变成钍 234， 在此过程中释放出一种叫做 α 粒子的东西。

For example, if the parent nucleus is radium, it would decay into radon and emit a single alpha particle.

例如，如果母核是镭，它会衰变为氡并发射单个 α 粒子。

The alpha particles emitted by uranium and thorium were energetic and ionizing enough to create electron hole pairs in the silicone.

铀和钍发射的阿尔法粒子能量大， 电离性强， 足以在硅中形成电子空穴对。

This reaction yields something less than the sum of its parts, for an alpha particle is lighter than four free protons.

这个反应产生的东西小于其各部分的总和，因为一个 alpha 粒子比四个自由质子轻。

Rutherford would later discover that if he bombarded nitrogen with alpha particles, it created a bunch of hydrogen ions.

卢瑟福后来发现， 如果他用 α 粒子轰击氮气，它会产生一堆氢离子。

But alpha particles have the least penetrating power of the three groups – they’re barely able to pass through a piece of paper.

但是 α 粒子的穿透力是这三组粒子中最小的——它们几乎无法穿过一张纸。

Plus, the bigger the nucleus, the more energy there is in each of the emitted alpha particles – which the researchers can also measure.

另外， 原子核越大，每个发射的 α 粒子中的能量就越多——研究人员也可以测量到这一点。

And just as you'd expect, they found the number of bit flips directly correlated with the number of alpha particles the chip had been exposed to.

正如您所预料的， 他们发现位翻转次数与芯片暴露的阿尔法粒子数量直接相关。

Because most of the alpha particles passed right through the atoms undeterred, Rutherford concluded that most of the atom is empty space, and he was correct.

因为大多数 α 粒子直接穿过原子而没有受到阻碍，卢瑟福得出结论， 大多数原子是空的空间， 他是正确的。

He concluded that an atom’s positive charge was concentrated in a tiny central nucleus, and these nuclei were deflecting alpha particles that bounced off of them.

他得出结论，一个原子的正电荷集中在一个微小的中央原子核中，这些原子核正在偏转从它们身上反弹的 alpha 粒子。

According to the plum pudding model, the alpha particles should’ve just passed straight through the foil, because atoms would be mostly empty space with some charges scattered around.

根据李子布丁模型，阿尔法粒子应该直接穿过铝箔， 因为原子大部分是空的， 周围散布着一些电荷。

The reason this problem was identified in the 1970s was because chip components had been miniaturized to the point where a single alpha particle could produce enough charge to flip a bit.

这个问题之所以在 20 世纪 70 年代被发现， 是因为芯片元件已经小型化到单个阿尔法粒子就能产生足够电荷来翻转一个位的程度。

So for example, if that uranium atom is at an excited state when it decays in to thorium, it can simultaneous release gamma waves as well as the alpha particle I already mentioned.

因此，例如，如果铀原子在衰变成钍时处于激发态，它可以同时释放伽马波以及我已经提到的阿尔法粒子。

Because physicists couldn't see anything so small as an atom, they had to try to work out its structure from how it behaved when they did things to it, as Rutherford had done by firing alpha particles at foil.

物理学家们看不见原子这样的小东西，他们不得不试图根据它在外来条件作用下的表现方式来确定它的结构，比如像卢瑟福那样向金箔发射α粒子。

So while I try not to make a habit of walking around with a hunk of uranium in my pocket, alpha particles can be stopped by nothing more than a sheet of paper or cloth.

因此，尽管我尽量不养成口袋里揣着一大块铀四处走动的习惯，但只用一张纸或一块布就可以阻止阿尔法粒子。