Rutherford's Study

Rutherford's study, involving the gold foil experiment, revealed that atoms have a small, dense nucleus at their center. By bombarding thin gold foil with alpha particles, Rutherford observed that while most particles passed through unchanged, a few were deflected at sharp angles, indicating a concentrated positive charge. This challenged the earlier "plum pudding" model and established that atoms consist mostly of empty space with a tiny, dense nucleus containing protons. His findings laid the groundwork for modern atomic theory, showing that the atom's mass and positive charge are concentrated in the nucleus.