Which statements are consistent with Rutherford's nuclear theory ...

Question

Which statements are consistent with Rutherford's nuclear theory as it was originally stated? Why?
a. The volume of an atom is mostly empty space.
b. The nucleus of an atom is small compared to the size of the atom.
c. Neutral lithium atoms contain more neutrons than protons.
d. Neutral lithium atoms contain more protons than electrons.

Accepted Answer

Welcome back everyone in this example, we need to identify the statements that are correct based on rutherford's nuclear theory as it was originally stated. So, statement one says that neutral helium atoms contain more electrons than protons. So the key word here is actually going to be neutral. And we would recall that electrons are negatively charged. Protons are positively charged. And in order for us to have a neutral helium adam, they would need to be equal. So we would correct this to stay equal and then and and so we would say that therefore this is going to be a false statement and we can rule this out as a choice. So moving on to statement two, it says that the atoms volume is mostly empty space and we would recall that what contributes to volume is definitely just the atom itself. And so we would agree that statement two is a correct choice. So we would say that this is true because it correctly agrees with Rutherford's nuclear theory. So we would confirm that choice to or statement to, It's a correct choice. So moving on to statement three, it says that the nucleus of an atom composes most of the volume of an atom. And we would recall that an atom is mostly volume according to Rutherford's nuclear theory. And so we would disagree with this statement and say that it is therefore going to be a false statement. So we would rule out statement three as well. Moving on to statement four, it says that neutral helium atoms contain more protons than neutrons. And as we stated above for our helium atoms to be neutral, this is only concerned with the electrons and protons. And we would also recall that Rutherford's experiments did not include neutrons and that is because he didn't discover them as yet. So this means that statement four is also going to not be correct based on Rutherford's nuclear theory. And so it's a false statement. And we would rule out choice for so our only correct choice to complete this example is choice B being statement to which states that the atoms volume is mostly empty space, which correctly agrees with Rutherford's nuclear theory. So I hope that everything that I reviewed was clear. If you have any questions, please leave them down below and I will see everyone in the next practice video.

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