When most of the positively charged particles aimed at a piece of gold foil passed through it, but a few deflected or bounced back, Rutherford suggested that _____.

They hit something that only occupied a fraction of the volume and they were repelled away. Like maybe there was a positively charged nucleus in there ?

Idk if thats right brodie

Rutherford suggested that the atom consists of a small, dense, and positively charged nucleus, surrounded by mostly empty space and electrons that orbit around the nucleus.

To answer this question, we need to understand the experiment conducted by Ernest Rutherford called the gold foil experiment. In this experiment, Rutherford aimed a beam of positively charged particles, specifically alpha particles, at a thin sheet of gold foil.

The majority of the positively charged particles passed through the gold foil without any deflection, indicating that the atoms of gold were mostly empty space. However, Rutherford observed that a few alpha particles were deflected or bounced back at large angles, which indicated the presence of a concentrated positive charge within the atom.

Based on these observations, Rutherford suggested that the positive charge of the atom is not spread uniformly throughout the atom as proposed by the previous model. Instead, he proposed that the positive charge is concentrated in a tiny, dense region at the center of the atom, which he called the nucleus. The negatively charged electrons would then orbit around the nucleus, much like planets around the sun.

This proposal by Rutherford is known as the nuclear model of the atom, which formed the basis for our modern understanding of atomic structure. It replaced the earlier model called the "plum pudding" model, where the positive charge was thought to be distributed uniformly throughout the atomic structure.