Use Rutherford's gold-foil experiment to answer each of the following:
b. How did the results differ from what he expected?

Rutherford's gold-foil experiment, conducted in 1909, involved firing alpha particles at a thin sheet of gold foil. The experiment aimed to probe the structure of the atom, which was believed to be a 'plum pudding' model with positive and negative charges distributed evenly. Instead, most alpha particles passed through, while a small fraction were deflected at large angles, leading to the conclusion that atoms have a dense, positively charged nucleus.

Rutherford expected that the alpha particles would pass through the gold foil with minimal deflection, consistent with the prevailing atomic model of the time. However, the unexpected large-angle deflections indicated that a significant portion of the atom's mass and positive charge was concentrated in a small volume, contradicting the earlier model and suggesting a new nuclear structure of the atom.

The nuclear model of the atom, proposed by Rutherford after his experiment, posits that atoms consist of a small, dense nucleus containing protons and neutrons, surrounded by electrons in a relatively large space. This model replaced the earlier 'plum pudding' model and laid the groundwork for modern atomic theory, fundamentally changing our understanding of atomic structure and behavior.