Contribution To Modern Science
After Rutherford's discovery, scientists started to realize that the atom is not ultimately a single particle, but is made up of far smaller subatomic particles. Subsequent research determined the exact atomic structure which led to Rutherford’s gold foil experiment. Scientists eventually discovered that atoms have a positively-charged nucleus (with an exact atomic number of charges) in the center, with a radius of about 1.2 x 10−15 meters x 1/3. Electrons were found to be even smaller.
Later, scientists found the expected number of electrons (the same as the atomic number) in an atom by using X-rays. When an X-ray passes through an atom some of it is scattered while the rest passes through the atom. Since the X-ray loses its intensity primarily due to scattering at electrons, by noting the rate of decrease in X-ray intensity, the number of electrons contained in an atom can be accurately estimated.
Read more about this topic: Rutherford Model
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