I dont really understand the Rutherford experiment

Rutherford revolutionised the atomic model with this experiment. At that time, the general idea was that of JJ Thompson, the  "plum pudding" atomic model. Rutherford bombarded a sheet of gold with alfa particles (positive charge) and measured the scattering pattern using a fluorescent screen that would be illuminated after being struck by the alpha radiation.He observed that although most alpha particles were not deflected, a very small percentage of them were deflected by nearly 180 degrees. These observations suggested different things: The atom consisted of mostly empty space (since most alphas were undeflected) and in the middle there was a very small positively charged nucleus that had mass, with a cloud of electrons orbiting around it. Does this help?

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Answered by Eduardo S. Physics tutor

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