gold foil experiment

The gold foil experiment, conducted by Ernest Rutherford in 1909, involved shooting alpha particles (tiny, positively charged particles) at a very thin sheet of gold. Most particles passed straight through, but some were deflected at sharp angles, and a few even bounced back. This showed that atoms are mostly empty space, with a small, dense, positively charged nucleus at the center. The experiment fundamentally changed our understanding of atomic structure, revealing that atoms have a tiny nucleus containing most of their mass and charge, surrounded by electrons.