1) How did geiger and marsden observe the behaviour of the alpha particles when they are very tiny(helium nuclei are very small)
they fired said particles at gold foil, which when through to a detector behind it.
2)How did rutherford conclude from the experiment that electrons orbit the nucleus.? I understand that they have to be far from the nucleus to avoid attraction to the positve charge however how can it be proved that they orbit the nucleus and are not just stationary
he did say they were stationary iirc.
it was someone else that discovered shells etc.