Rutherford found that most of the alpha particles went straight through the gold foil (position A in pic 6.13). some of the alpha particles were deflected slightly by the foil (to position B). However, a few alpha particles bounced straight back (to position C) as if they had hit something very small and dense in the gold atoms. The results of the experiment can be summarised in a graph of number of scintillations n plotted against the scattering angle