In the following demonstration, students are asked to form a mental picture of an object hidden beneath a cardboard blind. Students must formulate hypotheses about the size, shape, and composition of the object while watching their teacher probe the object with a laser beam. This exercise in indirect observation will prepare students for the details of Ernest Rutherford’s “Gold Foil Experiment” (GFE), providing them with a deeper understanding of how scientists such as Rutherford “know without seeing.”