in rutherford's gold foil experiment a very small number of alpha particles were deflected. what about the structure of the atoms that could have caused this?

The atom being mostly empty space. A small number of alpha particles were deflected by large angles (> 4°) as they passed through the foil. There is a concentration of positive charge in the atom. Like charges repel, so the positive alpha particles were being repelled by positive charge

a) in form of conduction