At the time of rutherford's gold leaf experiment, scientists knew that negatively charged electrons existed within the atom, but they did not know where the positive charge resided. what information about the positive charge was provided by rutherford's experiment? 1. there is no positive charge associated with an atom. 2. the positive charge can freely move within the atom. 3. the positive charge is spread throughout the atom. 4. the positive charge must be concentrated in a small core (the atomic nucleus).