The heavy, dense nucleus of the atom caused the alpha particles to bounce back in Rutherford's experiment.
Chat with our AI personalities
The positively charged nucleus of the atom, which contains protons and neutrons, is what causes particles to bounce back due to electrostatic repulsion. When an incoming particle has the same charge as the nucleus, such as another positively charged particle, they will repel each other, causing the incoming particle to bounce back.
The part of a atom that causes particles to bounce back is the electron cloud. However, there are some things that are able to pass through it.
positive
Yes, in Rutherford's gold foil experiment, he observed that some alpha particles were deflected at very large angles and even bounced straight back, indicating that they were hitting something small and dense (the atomic nucleus) within the gold foil. This observation led to the development of the nuclear model of the atom.
In Rutherford's metal foil experiment, some alpha particles passed straight through the foil, while others were deflected at various angles. A small fraction of the alpha particles even bounced back towards the source. This led Rutherford to conclude that atoms have a small, dense nucleus at their center.
Rutherford conducted the famous gold foil experiment, where he observed that some alpha particles were deflected back at large angles when they passed through thin gold foil. This led him to propose that the positive charge of an atom is concentrated in a small, dense region called the nucleus.
Rutherford proposed a new model of the atom because his experiments showed that the existing plum pudding model could not explain the results of his gold foil experiment. He found that some particles were deflected at large angles, suggesting a concentrated positive charge at the center of the atom. This led to the development of the nuclear model of the atom.