Rutherford's Gold Foil Experiment

From yesterday's experiment, I learned that gold is very malleable and can be pounded down to be a very thin foil. after Rutherford made the foil, he placed a radioactive material in a lead block. Since radioactive materials spew out molecules in many different directions, the lead block confined the molecules to come out of on hole of the lead block. The molecules shot out of the lead block and straight toward the gold foil. However, Rutherford found out that when the molecules hit the gold foil, most of them went straight through and others bounced off the foil in large angles.

The experiment shows the a small change in the number of protons, neutrons, and electrons an atom has can change the properties of the atom completely.