Rutherford why gold foil

Where the nucleus was in this middle and surrounded by empty space with orbiting electrons. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. History of Chemistry. July 31, Posted by Rylie Maziek. History of Chemistry: Rutherford Gold Foil Experiment In this article, you will learn the history behind the Rutherford Gold Foil Experiment and the events that led to the discovery of the atomic nucleus.

Top: How Rutherford expected the experiment to go. Bottom: How the experiment actually went. Facebook Twitter Pinterest linkedin Telegram. Newer Strong Acids and Bases. Back to list. Two years later, Rutherford had an explanation for this puzzling behavior.

Rather, he hypothesized that most of the mass and all of its positive charge are centered in a very small region called the nucleus. The rest of the atom is empty space. The units of positive charge are on the nucleus and the units of negative charge are outside the nucleus. Perhaps Rutherford described the awe inspiring nature of the discovery best when he said: "It was as if you fired a inch shell at a sheet of tissue paper and it came back to hit you.

Skip to Main Content. District Home. Improve this answer. Drebin J. The material used are cited also on Wikipedia's article: en. Community Bot 1. Mikhail Mikhail 1 1 gold badge 5 5 silver badges 23 23 bronze badges. Farcher Farcher Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown. The atom being mostly empty space. There is a concentration of positive charge in the atom. Like charges repel, so the positive alpha particles were being repelled by positive charges.

A very small number of alpha particles came straight back off the foil.