84.2k views
5 votes
Explain the gold foil experiment that was done by Ernest Rutherford and what was learned from it:

User Vlasits
by
8.6k points

1 Answer

5 votes

Answer:

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 deflection.

User Mike Sokolov
by
8.4k points