Question

In Rutherford’s gold foil experiment, many of the alpha particles passed straight through the gold foil, completely undeflected. What did Rutherford conclude from this observation?

A. Alpha particles have a positive charge.

B. Electrons have a negative charge.

C. An atom is made up of mostly empty space.

D. There is a dense area within an atom that has a negative charge.

Answer 1

Answer: C

Step-by-step explanation:

Rutherford's Gold Foil Experiment

These were his conclusions.

• Aimed beam of alpha particles at a thin piece of gold foil and found most of the particles passed through the gold foil without being scattered, except for a few particles.
• He found the volume of an atom is mostly empty space.
• He proposed there is a heavy, positively charged body at the center of each atom that contains most of the mass.
• Electrons are throughout the atom.
• Number of electrons outside the nucleus equals the number of protons in the nucleus. Atom is electrically neutral.