2007-01-14 02:18:30 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
empty space.
2007-01-14 03:15:18 · answer #1 · answered by catarthur 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
empty space!
rutherford fired particles at an atom and most of the time the particle went striaght through with no interaction. This showed that the atom was mostly empty space. Every now and then, he would hit the nucleus and get a major change in the path of his particle, but usually it went straigh through. Since the experiment, we have learned of quantum physics and the fact that the electron is not exactly orbiting like a planet. The electron cloud concept provides a probability function that describes the chances of finding the electron in a certian region of space. This does not mean that the electron is located there or that it is smeared out...it only means there is a chance the electron could be observed there. Nevertheless, rutherford demonstrated that most of the atom appears to be empty space.!!!!
2007-01-14 10:58:12 · answer #2 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
well its certainly not empty space...
...most of the atom is an electron probability cloud - only very rarely does this fall to zero (ie is empty)
an answer of "empty space" relies on a model of the atom that was superceded around 100 years ago
2007-01-14 11:17:36 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
protons and neutrons
2007-01-14 10:41:10 · answer #4 · answered by Sidd 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
protons and neutrons
2007-01-14 10:30:24 · answer #5 · answered by maussy 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋