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: In the '''experiment''' [[Ernest Rutherford|Rutherford's]] students ([[Ernest Marsden]] and [[Hans Geiger]]) fired high speed [[Alpha Particle|alpha particle]]s at a thin sheet of [[gold]] foil. A detector could be placed at different positions around the '''experiment''' which would make a small flash of light every time an [[Alpha Particle|alpha particle]] reached the detector. This could be used to find the path of the [[Alpha Particle|alpha particles]] as they passed through the [[gold]] foil.
: The path of the [[Alpha Particle|alpha particle]]s provided evidence to disprove the [[Plum Pudding Model]].
: If the [[Plum Pudding Model]] were correct then nearly all of the [[Alpha Particle|alpha particles]] should have passed straight through, unaffected, since the [[Alpha Particle|alpha particle]] is [[Positive Charge|positively charged ]] while [[atom]]s should have an even spread of [[Electrical Charge|charge]]d [[particle]]s all the way through them. There should have been no [[Electrostatic Force|electrostatic force]] to change their direction.
: They observed that most of the [[Alpha Particle|alpha particle]]s went through in a straight line. A small number were [[deflect]]ed by a small angle and a very small number bounced off the [[Gold]] back towards the [[Alpha Particle|alpha]] source.
These observations led to a number of conclusions: