What were the conclusions and drawbacks of this gold foil experiment?

Answer 1

Ernest Rutherford, a New Zealander, designed an experiment to study how alpha particles, with a 2+ charge, interact with a piece of very thin gold foil. Rutherford bombarded a very thin piece of gold foil with a stream of postively charged particles known as the alpha particles. He found that most of the alpha particles passed straight through the foil. This shows that most of the atom is empty space. However, a few of the alpha particles bounced back and some of the alpha particles were defected. This means that the center of the atom, or nucleus, is positively charged because it repelled the alpha particles, the charge of which is positive. A direct collision repels an alpha particle backward. This shows that the center of the atom of gold is a tiny core heavier than an alpha particle. Rutherford concluded that an atom was made of a very dense, positively charged nucleus surrounded primarily by empty space in which the electrons could be found. The radius of the nucleus is extremly small, about 1/100 000 that of the atom itself. The volme of the atom is essentially the space that the electrons occupy. Now we know that the electrons move about the nucleus, not in a fixed location.

Answer 2

The conclusions of the gold foil experiment were that atoms are mostly empty space with a small, dense nucleus at the center. This led to the development of the nuclear model of the atom. Drawbacks of the experiment include the assumption that all alpha particles would be deflected, which was not always the case, and the limited precision of the equipment used at the time.

Answer 3

nothing really, i thought it was ok