A British physicist who discovered and experimented with cathode rays. It was found that these rays consisted of what are later called electrons by Thomson.
“An atom is a ball of positive charge with electrons dotted evenly through it like currants in a plum pudding. Overall, the atom is neutral”.
Most alpha particles went straight through the foil
The atom consists of mostly empty space
A few particles were deflected
There is a charged mass within the nucleus
Very few bounded back or were deflected at large angles
The charged mass is very small
The charged mass is very dense
The atom consists of mostly empty space
Most alpha particles were found to go straight through the foil, therefore indicating that most of the atom is empty.
There is a charged mass within the nucleus
Some alpha particles experienced a small angle of deflection indicating that they did not impact it, but rather were deflected through repulsion of charges.
The charged mass is very small
Very few alpha particles were deflected meaning that the charged mass is very small.
The charged mass is very dense
Those alpha particles that impacted the mass could be bounced off at a very large angle indicating that is has a mass much greater than the alpha particles.
In 1932, he performed a whakamātau to discover the third type of sub-atomic particle that is not deflected by an electric or magnetic field – the “neutron”.
Rutherford was aiming to see how alpha particles would behave as they went through the foil. Alpha particles are stopped very easily. If the gold foil was thicker it would have stopped the particles completely and not let any to go through.
In this case we would not be able to conclude anything about the nuelcar structure.