Describe Rutherford's Gold Foil Experiment and explain how its results led to the proposal of the nuclear model of the atom.
ChemistryClass 9CBSEAnswered 12 May 2026
Answer
Rutherford's Gold Foil Experiment involved firing alpha particles at a thin sheet of gold foil. Most alpha particles passed straight through, suggesting atoms are mostly empty space. However, a small fraction were deflected at large angles, and some even bounced back, indicating the presence of a small, dense, positively charged nucleus at the center of the atom.
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