Question

How was Rutherford’s gold foil experiment inconsistent with the plum pudding model of the atom?

Answer 1

According to the plum pudding model of the atom proposed by J.J. Thomson, the atom was considered to be a positive charge sphere in which electrons (negatively charged) are embedded in order to balance the positive charge.

According to Rutherford’s gold foil experiment, when he bombarded $\alpha$ particles to the gold foil he observed that most of the particles went through, some of them got scattered in various directions, and few are deflected back to the source. Hence, this experiment shows that the plum pudding model was incorrect as; if there was the symmetrical distribution of the charges then all the $\alpha$ particles will pass through without any deflection.