78.4k views
0 votes
Please help

Rutherford's famous gold foil experiments shot heavy particles at a thin sheet of gold foil. What did he observe, and why did these observations eventually result in the addition of a nucleus to the atomic model?

Some of the heavy particles bounced off the foil, because there are positive particles spread throughout the atom.

Some of the heavy particles bounced off the foil, because there is a dense, positive area in the atom.

The heavy particles all passed straight through the foil, because the atoms are mostly empty space.

The heavy particles all bounced off the foil, because the subatomic particles have mass and volume.

User Vadimvolk
by
5.1k points

2 Answers

3 votes

The heavy particles all passed straight through the foil, because the atoms are mostly empty space.

Answer is third choice

User Arvind Kandaswamy
by
5.2k points
5 votes

Answer: Some of the heavy particles bounced off the foil, because there is a dense, positive area in the atom.

Step-by-step explanation:

In Rutherford's experiment, he took a gold foil and bombarded it with alpha particles which carry positive charge. He thought that the alpha particles will pass straight through the foil, but to his surprise, many of them passed through, some of them deflected their path and a few of them bounced back.

From this he concluded that in an atom, there exist a small positive charge in the center. Due to this positive charge, the alpha particles deflected their path and some of them bounced straight back their path.

Thus he concluded that there is a dense, positive area in the atom.

User Jez
by
5.0k points