Question

the great majority of alpha pass through gases and thin metal foil with no deflections. to what conclusion about atomic structure does this observation lead?

Answer 1

That it's not very dense. If you fire 100 bullets through a sphere covered in paper, and 98 go through without deflection, you would probably conclude the sphere was made of something not very dense, like styrofoam.

This was actually already known by the time Geiger and Marsden did the experiment to which you refer. The density of atoms can easily be calculated, and it is nowhere near sufficient to deflect alphas traveling at a decent clip.

The *surprising* fact about the experiment is that a very few alpha DID experience deflection, at very large angles. Returning to the analogy, if 2 of the bullets you shot at the paper-covered sphere ricocheted right back at you, you would conclude that there was something very dense and hard indeed lurking somewhere inside that sphere.

Answer 2

Simply in short, the atom is very dense in the middle and the rest is not as much dense and heavy as the central part. Only then max particles pass through the foil without deflection because they don't interfere with the heavy dense part in the center. And if most of the particles pass straight away, we can conclude that the dense part is very small in size. Which proves that most of the mass is concentrated in the heart of the atom called nucleus which is much much smaller than th actual size of the atom....

Answer 3

alpha particles which are scattered by an angle means they hit with something of the same charge and which are passed without deflection means the space through which they passed there was nothing to stop them or reflect them back. so the alpha particleand gold foil experiment was performed using very thin gold foil.

hope u got the point ............please if u can answer my question answer it.