question archive Here's the deal: Rutherford thought it would be cool to shoot positively-charged alpha particles (helium nuclei) at a very thin piece of gold foil
Subject:ChemistryPrice: Bought3
Here's the deal:
Rutherford used this observation to make the following determination about atoms: Atoms are mostly empty space. This is why most of the alpha particles passed through the atom - there is mostly nothing for them to bump into and deflect them. All of the positive charge in the atom is crammed into a tiny nucleus. Though most of the alpha particles won't go anywhere near a nucleus, the positive nucleus will repel the positively-charged alpha particles if they get too close to each other, causing the particles to deflect in weird directions.