Rutherford Gold Foil Experiment

The Rutherford Gold Foil Experiment overturned the plum pudding model by revealing the atom's dense nucleus. In 1911, Ernest Rutherford fired alpha particles at gold foil; most passed through, but 1 in 8,000 bounced back, indicating a tiny, massive core. This discovery is 200 times smaller than the predicted atomic size, and 40% more precise than J.J. Thomson's model could explain. It outperforms #4's classical scattering theory, establishing the nuclear atom and paving the way for quantum mechanics.