Results (Also seen in GCSE Physics 2)

Geiger and Marsden found that almost all of the alpha particles passed through with little or no deflection. Rutherford suggested moving the microscope in front of the foil, when they did they found that about 1 in every 8000 was ‘reflected’ back or scattered through an angle of more that 90°.

If the plum pudding model was the structure of the atom this would be like firing a bullet at a piece of toilet paper and it bouncing back – mental!