Question

hat were the expected results of Rutherford's gold foil experiment, based on Thomson's model of the atom? How did the real results of the gold foil experiment change the accepted model of the atom? (3 points)

Answer 1

*what

Answer 2

Thomson's model of the atom is known as the "plum pudding model." According to this model, the atom is a relatively large structure composed of diffuse positive charge, with negatively-charged electrons scattered throughout it like raisins in pudding.

Rutherford's gold foil experiment involved shooting alpha particles (He2+) through a very thin sheet of gold foil and observing their path after passing through. If the plum pudding model was correct, we would expect to see minimal scattering of alpha particles as they pass through the gold foil, due to the uniform nature of the atoms and the weak, diffuse positive charge.

However, what was actually seen was that although many alpha particles did pass through the gold foil, some were deflected significantly off course. This suggested that the positive charge was concentrated in one small area of the atom (i.e. the nucleus), rather than encompassing a much larger area. This led to a new model of the atom, where the atom was composed mainly of empty space except for a positively charged nucleus right in the centre.

Answer 3

thanks