Rutherford's gold foil experiment showed that the atom is mostly empty space with a tiny, dense, positively-charged nucleus. Based on these results, Rutherford proposed the nuclear model of the atom. The Rutherford atomic model was correct in that the atom is mostly empty space. Most of the mass is in the nucleus, and the nucleus is positively charged. Far from the nucleus are the negatively charged electrons. But the Rutherford atomic model used classical physics and not quantum mechanics.