Between 1908 and 1913, Ernest Rutherford, Hans Geiger, and Ernest Marsden collaborated on a series of experiments in which they bombarded thin metal foils with a beam of alpha particles and measured the intensity versus scattering angle of the particles. They found that the metal foil could scatter alpha particles by more than 90°. This should not have been possible according to the Thomson model: the scattering into large angles should have been negligible. The odds of a beta particle being scattered by more than 90° under such circumstances is astronomically small, and since alpha particles typically have much more momentum than beta particles, their deflection should be smaller still.Rutherford (1911): "This scattering is far more marked for the β than for the α particle on account of the much smaller momentum and energy of the former particle." The Thomson models simply could not produce electrostatic forces of sufficient strength to cause such large deflection. The charges in the Thomson model were too diffuse. This led Rutherford to discard the Thomson for a new model where the positive charge of the atom is concentrated in a tiny nucleus.
Between 1908 and 1913 Ernest Rutherford, Hans Geiger, and Ernest Marsden collaborated on a series of experiments in whic,h they bombarded thin metal foils with a beam of alpha particles and measured the intensity versus scattering angle of the particles. They found that the metal foil could scatter alpha particles by more than 90°. This should not have been possible according to the Thomson model: the scattering into large angles should have been negligible. The odds of a beta particle being scattered by more than 90° under such circumstances is astronomically small, and since alpha particles typically have much more momentum than beta particles, their deflection should be smaller still.Rutherford (1911): "This scattering is far more marked for the β than for the α particle on account of the much smaller momentum and energy of the former particle." The Thomson models simply could not produce electrostatic forces of sufficient strength to cause such large deflection. The charges in the Thomson model were too diffuse. This led Rutherford to discard the Thomson for a new model where the positive charge of the atom is concentrated in a tiny nucleus.