Scattering ball bearings off targets

The principal methods of investigating phenomena on a nuclear scale (around 10^-15 m) involve projecting particles into the region of the nucleus and observing what comes out. (This may be likened to investigating the contents of the centre of a hay stack by throwing golf balls at it and finding either the golf ball returned, or human screams, or whatever.) One process that is commonly seen in using these techniques is scattering, whereby the incident particle gets bounced back out, having had its momentum (and maybe its energy) changed.

This simulation simulates nuclear scattering experiments by scattering ball bearings off targets. Simply click the button to change the objects from circular to square and see how scattering will change.