Well, in simple terms, I shot tiny alpha positively charged alpha particles at an extremely thin sheet of gold foil, thus the title: The Gold Foil Experiment. Isn't it great? I think it's great.

Right... Hmm... seems like a silly thing to do. Why would you waist beautiful gold in a fashion such as this?

Well, again, the simple answer would be found in my hypothesis. I believed that the particles would go right through the gold foil due to its very thin width.

Were you correct?

For the most part, yes. However, some bounced back at me, which I found very odd. This taught me that there must have been something in the gold atoms, which is why a few particles bounced back. From this I deducted a few facts and discovered the neutron and the nucleus.

A better understanding of the Rutherford experiment