Question

Describe the results of Ernest Rutherford's gold-foil experiment and explain how his results changed ideas about the distribution of positive charge within the atom.

Answer 1

Physicist Ernest Rutherford established the nuclear theory of the atom with his gold-foil experiment. When he shot a beam of alpha particles at a sheet of gold foil, a few of the particles were deflected. He concluded that a tiny, dense nucleus was causing the deflections.

Answer 2

Ernest Rutherford applies alpha particle towards an atom, some atom showed deflection by smaller angle, very few through large angle and many just passed without any deflection.

His results changed the idea for distribution of positive charges as he concluded almost all the positive charge is in center of the atom (inside nucleus) and it is very heavy than electrons which revolves outside the nucleus

Hope this helps!