These results demonstrate that the plum pudding model is incorrect. These results suggested to Rutherford that the atom actually had a small positively charged nucleus. Rutherford modeled the interaction of the alpha particles with the nucleus of the gold atoms as involving only the repulsion of their electric charges. read more
Others (not Thomson) compared it to a British dessert called plum pudding, so his model came to be known as the plum pudding model. Many North Americans would compare it to the raisins and nuts in a spherical Christmas cake. read more
The plum pudding model, on the other hand, predicted only a slight deflection of the scattered alpha particle beam. No large angle backscattering. These results demonstrated that the plum pudding model was incorrect. read more
This result cannot be explained by the Plum Pudding model, in which each atom consists of a "pudding" of positive charge, with the negatively charged electrons embedded in it, like plums in a large ball of pudding. read more