Question

The conclusions of Rutherford’s scattering experiment are:
A.Nucleus is very small in size
B.Nucleus is very heavy and carries positive charge
C.Most of the space in the atom is empty
D.All of the above

Answer 1

Hint: Conclusions were drawn from Rutherford’s scattering experiment. Most of the alpha-particles passed straight without any deviation, i.e. there was nothing inside to stop it in its path. This means most of the space is vacant inside the foil and gives views on the nucleus.

Complete step by step answer:
Rutherford conducted an experiment in which he bombarded a thin sheet of gold with \[\alpha \]-particles and then studied their trajectory after their interaction with the gold foil. He directed high energy streams of \[\alpha \] -particles from a radioactive source at a thin sheet of gold. To study the deflection caused by the \[\alpha \] -particles, he placed a fluorescent zinc sulphide screen over the thin gold foil.
According to his experiment, the positively charged particles and most of the mass of an atom was concentrated in a very small volume known as nucleus which is very heavy. He proposed that the negatively charged electrons surrounding the nucleus revolve around it with very high speed in circular paths called orbits. Electrons and nucleus bearing positively charged particles are held together by a strong electrostatic force of attraction.
He observed and concluded following points :-
A major fraction of the \[\alpha \] -particles when bombarded passed through it without any deflection, and thus most of the space in an atom is empty.
Some of the \[\alpha \] -particles were deflected by the gold sheet by very small angles, and so the positive charge in an atom is not uniformly distributed.
Very few \[\alpha \] -particles were deflected back, only a few \[\alpha \] -particles had nearly \[{180^o}\] angle of deflection. Therefore, the volume occupied by the positively charged particles in an atom is very small in comparison to the total volume of an atom.

Hence, the correct option is (D).

Note:
The Rutherford model had many drawbacks. It was not in accordance with Maxwell’s theory and did not explain the stability of an atom. He did not say anything about the arrangement of electrons in an atom that made it incomplete.