Question

Which diagram best illustrates the atomic model that Rutherford derived from his gold foil experiment?

A small orange circle with seven plus signs is at the center of a larger dotted circle. Between the two circles are 7 small green circles, each labeled with a negative sign.

A red circle with a large, faint plus sign visible contains 10 small orange circles labeled with minus signs.

An orange circle bounded by a heavier, darker orange line surrounds the word Atom.

A small blue circle labeled with a minus sign lies at the center of a larger circle. Spaced around the outer circle are three small green circles labeled with plus signs.

Answer 1

The first diagram. Rutherford's gold-foil results showed a tiny, dense positive nucleus (central plus signs) with electrons in the surrounding mostly empty space (negative charges around it).