What rutherford concluded from a particle scattering experiment?
Answers
Rutherford bombarded alpha particles onto gold foil.
He found that all the parties passed through the foil easily. Very few alpha particles deflected with very small angles.
Thus he concluded that the mass of the atom is concentrated at the centre which is nucleus and the part surrounding it is almost empty.
He proved his teacher J.J.Thomson wrong who said that if atom is assumed to be a watermelon then the electrons are embedded as the seeds.
Rutherford by alpha ray experiment gave planetary model of atom
which means if atom is assumed to be solar system then nucleus is sun and electrons revolve around nucleus as plants around sun.
(i) Most of the alpha particles passed through the gold foil without getting deflected.
(ii) Very few particles were deflected from their path by 180o indicating that the whole mass of the atom is present in its centre in a very small volume.
(iii) Few particles were deflected at small angles from their path and very few were deflected from their path by 180° indicating that the positive charge of the atom occupies very little space and is located at the centre.