Question

Which conclusion could be made from Ernest Rutherford’s gold foil experiment?

Answer 1

The conclusion was that there must be space between the particles of an atom. The way he knew this is because while some of the radiation reflected off of the gold foil, other radiation went right through it.

Answer 2

Mass of an atom is concentrated in a positively charged core called the nucleus.

Step-by-step explanation:

Rutherford gold foil experiment expanded our understanding of the structure of an atom. When positively charged alpha particles were bombarded against a thin gold foil, Rutherford observed that majority of particles passed through the foil undisturbed whereas a small percentage retraced their path.

There were two main conclusions from the experiment:

-Since most alpha particles simply passed through undeviated this suggested that majority of the space inside the atom is empty

- Also, since some of them completely bounced back this suggested that there is a positively charged core in which the mass of the nucleus is concentrated.