Question

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

Atoms are made up of mostly empty space.
Atoms are mainly solid and block alpha particles.
The volume of the nucleus is large compared to the rest of the atom.
The mass of the nucleus is small compared to the rest of the atom.

Answer 1

The nucleus while large has a small ratio of mass when dealing with atoms, they are very spread out and are mostly solid with a blocky shape.

Answer 2

The correct option is :Atoms are made up of mostly empty space.

Step-by-step explanation:

Ernest Rutherford’s gold foil experiment has following observation:

• Most of the alpha particles had easily escaped through the atom which accounts for that atom is mostly empty space.
• Very less number of alpha particles were deflected from their path which indicated that positive charge is only concentrated in the center of the atom which termed as nucleus of an atom where positively charged i.e protons are located.
• Whole the mass of an atom is concentrated in the nucleus of the atom.