-when the microscope was aligned along the original path of the alpha particles, a large number of scintillations were observed. This means that the gold foil to produce the scintillations
-if atoms are made of solid spheres as Thomson had proposed, more alpha particles should be scattered. The result shows otherwise – most of the alpha particles pass straight through the gold foil without deflection. The gold atoms must consist of mainly empty space as shown in Figure 6.16(b). this also means that much of the mass of the atom resides in a very tiny core (i.e. the nucleus)