What will be the result of Rutherford's gold foil experiment, if Thomson's model of the atom was true?
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Solution
Rutherford gold foil experiment:
Rutherford bombarded a thin sheet of gold foil with alpha particles and studied the path of the scattered particles.
He gave his atomic model on this basis:
An atom is essentially empty space (since most of the rays traveled straight through),
Something very solid (nucleus) resides inside every atom, causing some of the rays to "bounce back," and
The nucleus is positively charged, causing some of the rays to be deflected at strange angles (like repels like, as in a magnet).
Result of Rutherford's gold foil experiment, if Thomson's model of the atom was true:
In Rutherford's model, the particles were deflected at large angles but if Thomson's model was true, then the alpha particles would deflect at smaller angles.
Also, the speed of the particles would be decreased due to the repulsion of the diffused positive charge.
