who discovered the atom is mostly empty space
Geiger–Marsden experiment When Geiger and Marsden shot alpha particles at their metal foils, they noticed only a tiny fraction of the alpha particles were deflected by more than 90Â°. Most just flew straight through the foil. This suggested that those tiny spheres of intense positive charge were separated by vast gulfs of empty space.[7] Most particles passed through the empty space and experienced negligible deviation, while a handful struck the nuclei of the atoms and bounced right back.