Rutherford Also seen in GCSE Physics 2

Rutherford fired a beam of alpha particles at a thin gold foil. If the atom had no inner structure the alpha particles would only be deflected by very small angles. Some of the alpha particles were scattered at large angles by the nuclei of the atoms. From this Rutherford deduced that the atom was mostly empty space with the majority of the mass situated in the centre. Atoms were made from smaller particles.