What was fired at the gold foil in Rutherford's experiment?
Alpha particles
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What was the foil target made from in Rutherford's experiment?
Gold
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What are alpha particles?
Alpha particles are helium nuclei (2 protons and 2 neutrons).
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What happened to most alpha particles incident on the gold foil?
Most alpha particles passed through the gold foil with little or no deflection.
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What proportion of alpha particles (small/medium/high) were deflected through angles greater than 90°?
A small number of alpha particles were deflected through angles larger than 90°.
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What conclusion can be drawn from most alpha particles passing through the gold foil with little or no deflection?
Most of the atom is empty space.
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What did Rutherford's results tell us about the structure of the atom?
That atoms are mostly empty space, with a tiny positively charged nucleus.
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