Who was Rutherford?
In 1909 Rutherford did a famous experiment that proved that atoms are not solid spheres but mostly consist of space. In his experiment he used alpha particles (positively charged helium nuclei). He used radioactive elements such as uranium to emit beams of alpha particles through a sheet of thin gold foil. The results of the experiment proved that most of the alpha particles passed straight through the gold foil and only a small amount had been deflected. This lead Thompson to conclude that the atom consists mostly of space and that the atom contained a small dense, positively charge nucleus as some of the particles were deflected at a 90 degree angle.
