Answer to Question #133533 in Physical Chemistry for char

Question

In Rutherford’s gold foil experiment, most alpha particles passed through the gold foil without deflection and were detected on the screen. What caused the particles to pass through without any deflection

Answer 1

Because atoms are almost "empty". Alpha particles could be deflected only by the atom nucleus, which is very small. This is exactly what Rutherford discovered in his experiment that an atom consists of electrons that "fly" around a very small and heavy nucleus.