I have been reading a chapter in my physics text. In it there is Rutherford's gold foil experiment.
There it is written that doubly charged helium particles (alpha particles) were projected onto very thin gold foil. Most of the alpha particles passed straight through, but some of the alpha particles bounced back because positive particles (protons) in the nucleus repelled them. Positive and positive always repel each other.
If charge was the reason some of the alpha particles bounced back, then why didn't the electrons (negative) of the gold atoms which are much smaller then protons get attracted to the alpha particles? Positive and negative attract.
I would have thought the doubly charged alpha particles would be attracted to the negative electrons.