Question

In a gold - foil experiment
a) why did many a__ particles pass through the gild foilundeflected ?
b) why did few a__particles deflect through small angle
c)why did few a _ particles , after striking the gold foil ,retrace their path

Answer 1

a) since most of the Alpha particles pass straight through the gold foil without any deflection ,it shows that there is a lot of empty space in an atom .
b) some of the Alpha particles are deflected through small angle because there is a centre of positive charge in the atom which repels the positively charged Alpha particles and deflect them from the original path.
c) the observation that a very few Alpha particles completely rebound on hitting the gold foil shows that the nucleus is very dense and hard which does not allow the Alpha particle to pass through it .



hope it helps