Question

Alpha particles are charged.

Answer 1

• Alpha particles are positively charged helium ions ( He²⁺ ).
• Rutherford used alpha particles in his alpha particle scattering experiment to determine the structure of an atom.
• In his experiment he observed that most of the alpha particles passed through the gold foil. Few alpha particles were deflected at certain angles and a very few alpha particles retraced their path at the centre.
• From these observations, he concluded that there is a positively charged centre in an atom due to which positively charged alpha particles at the centre got retraced their path. This positively charged centre is called the nucleus of an atom.