Question
Which observation by Ernest Rutherford and his students refuted the plum pudding model?
A. electron attraction
B. alpha particle deflection
C. electron deflection
D. alpha particle attraction
A. electron attraction
B. alpha particle deflection
C. electron deflection
D. alpha particle attraction
Answers
GPT-4o mini
The observation that refuted the plum pudding model was **B. alpha particle deflection**.
In Rutherford's gold foil experiment, alpha particles were directed at a thin sheet of gold. While most particles passed through with little or no deflection, a small number were deflected at large angles. This was surprising and indicated that there was a dense, positively charged nucleus at the center of the atom, leading to the rejection of the plum pudding model, which proposed that electrons were distributed evenly throughout a positively charged "soup."
In Rutherford's gold foil experiment, alpha particles were directed at a thin sheet of gold. While most particles passed through with little or no deflection, a small number were deflected at large angles. This was surprising and indicated that there was a dense, positively charged nucleus at the center of the atom, leading to the rejection of the plum pudding model, which proposed that electrons were distributed evenly throughout a positively charged "soup."