Describe the Rutherford model used figure …

• Thomson’s model revealed that atom has spherical structure, with positive charge spread all over the sphere and electrons are embedded in it. Also there is equal number of positive and negative charge i.e. atom is electrically neutral.

• Ernest Rutherford carried out experiments by taking consideration in Thomson’s model and presented more accurate model i.e. Rutherford’s model. Rutherford bombarded ⍺ particles i.e. He²⁺ ions on gold foil. Gold foil has very thin thickness of about 1000 atoms thick. Observations of Rutherford’s experiment are
  • Most of ⍺ particles passes through gold foil
  • Some ⍺ particles get deflected with very small angles from their path
  • Very few i.e. 1/ 12000 were reflected back on same path

On basis of observations, Rutherford put forth conclusion

• Most ⍺ particles pass through gold foil, therefore, atom must have large empty space in it.
• Some ⍺ particles gets deflected, hence there is some strong dense opposition. ⍺ particle is positively charge. If ⍺ particle is deflected then, opposition must be having a positive charge.
• Very few ⍺ particles are deflected this shows that, positive and other mass of atom is in very small volume in the atom.
• Moreover, it was identified that radius of dense space is 10⁵ times smaller than size of atoms.