Alpha Particle Scattering

The famous experiment performed by Geiger and Marsden, for Rutherford.

• Alpha particles were fired at a thin sheet of gold foil. 
• About 99% of the alpha particles went straight through the foil and some were deflected at small angles. This means that most of the atom is empty space
• However, a very small number of alpha particles were scattered at angles greater than 90 degrees
• They concluded that this showed the existence of a tiny positive nucleus of size 10^(-15)m