Question

Explain how the results of Ernest Rutherford's gold-foil experiment showed that the atom is mostly empty space.

Answer 1

the Rutherford experiment was when a scientist used a very thing piece of gold foil (only a few atoms thick - gold is made up of large atoms) and fired alpha particles (helium nuclei - 2 protons and 2 neutrons) at it to see what happened most of the alpha particles passed straight through, proving that atoms are mainly empty space. yet 1 in 8000 (or some big number like that..) was reflected (probably not the right word), proving that there is a dense mass in the center of the atom. many other particles were deflected proving that that dense mass - the nucleus - must be positively charged, and so repelled the positively charged alpha particles.

Answer 2

Most of the alpha particles went straight through the gold foil without any deflection..

This showed that an atom contains a lot of empty space in it