Homework Help: Physical Science

Posted by Dan on Friday, September 3, 2010 at 10:45am.

.In the early 1900s, two associates of New Zealander Ernest Rutherford bombarded thin sheets of gold with positively charged subatomic particles.

They found that most of the particles passed right through the sheets but some bounced back as if they had hit something solid. Based on their results what do you think the majority of an atom is made of? What part of the atom caused the particles to bounce back?

Physical Science - drwls, Friday, September 3, 2010 at 11:43am
The experiment revealed that particles that bounced backwards had hit dense, positively charged, nuclei, where most of the mass atoms resides. Negatively charged electrons fill the large gaps in between atomic nuclei.

The Rutherford experiment is one of the most important in the history of science. Nothing was known about the structure of an atom before that.

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