What did the Geiger-Marsden experiment disprove?

The Geiger-Marsden experiment, also known as the Rutherford gold foil experiment, played a crucial role in shaping our understanding of atomic structure. This experiment primarily provided evidence against Thomson's plum pudding model of the atom.

In the plum pudding model proposed by J.J. Thomson, atoms were envisioned as a uniform positive sphere with negatively charged electrons embedded within it, much like raisins in a pudding. According to this model, alpha particles, which were used in the Geiger-Marsden experiment, would pass through the atom with minimal deflection because the positive charge was thought to be evenly distributed throughout the atom.

However, during the experiment, the researchers observed that some alpha particles were deflected at large angles, and some even bounced back toward the source. This unexpected result indicated that the positive charge within the atom was concentrated in a very small volume, rather than being spread out evenly. This led to the conclusion that the atom has a dense nucleus, thereby disproving the plum pudding model and contributing to the development of the nuclear model of the atom, which posited that electrons orbit a central nucleus.

The findings of the experiment did not specifically disprove Rutherford's model, nor did they contradict the discrete energy levels associated with specific atomic configurations or the planetary