This scientist led a series of experiments that used high-speed lightweight atoms called alpha particles to bombard very thin pieces of gold foil. some of the alpha particles went straight through the foil but a few alpha particles bounced back. the scientist used this information to hypothesize that an atom must be made of a tiny dense nucleus surrounded by a region of mostly empty space. which scientist did this? a. j. j. thomson b. john dalton c. ernest rutherford d. neils bohr

An  atom  (ours, not carroll's) consists of a positively charged  nucleus, surrounded by one or more negatively charged particles called  electrons. the positive charges equal the negative charges, so the atom has no overall charge; it is electrically neutral. most of an atom's mass is in its nucleus; the mass of an electron is only 1/1836 the mass of the lightest nucleus, that of hydrogen. although the nucleus is heavy, it is quite small compared with the overall size of an atom. the radius of a typical atom is around 0.1 to 0.25 nanometres (nm), whereas the radius of a nucleus is about 10-6  nm.  *  if an atom were enlarged to the size of the earth, its nucleus would be only 200 feet in diameter and could easily rest inside a small football stadium.read more on -