What did Rutherford's gold-foil experiment help him conclude?

Answer 1

When Rutherford put the gold foil in front of the alpha-particle emitting source, he noticed a few things:

1. Some of the alpha particles passed through the gold foil

2. Some the particles were deflected

3. Some of the particles bounced back

Rutherford concluded that an atom is made up of mostly empty space and the actual size of the atom is far smaller than the space it occupies.

Answer 2

It proved there was a nucleus in the atoms, but did not know exactly what. Chadwick discovered the neutron and Goldstein discovered the proton.

Answer 3

the existence of a dense, positively charged center in an atom

Answer 4

That the mass of an atom is mostly located in a small nucleus.

Answer 5

That the atom contained a small "hard" strongly positively charged nucleus at its center with the electrons outside that nucleus.