Advantages And Disadvantages Of Rutherford's Model Of Atom

Introduction

Atoms are the fundamental building blocks of matter. Atom is made up of smaller particles called sub atomic particles. Three main sub-atomic particles are electrons, protons, neutrons.

4.1 Charged particles in matter

The existence of electron in an atom was shown by the scientist JJ Thompson on the basis of detailed study of cathode rays. The existence of positively charged particles in atom was shown by E Goldstein in the year 1886. He performed an experiment with discharge tube containing perforated cathode and a gas at low pressure and discovered the presence of new radiations in a gas discharged called as Canal rays. He concluded that these rays were positively charged, equal in magnitude to that of electrons and named them

From these observations he concluded that;

• Since most of the -particles passed through the foil without undergoing any deflection, there must be sufficient empty space within the atom.

• Since some -particles were defected through the small angles or a few through the large angles. As the -particles are positively charged these can only be deflected by positive entities. Those which were deflected by small angles are passed close to positive body and those particles which were deflected by large angles passed very close to the positive body.

Drawbacks of Rutherford’s model

In the years after Rutherford discovered the nucleus, chemists and particle physicists discovered that electron behavior was much more complicated than depicted in the Rutherford model. Electrons did not travel in set paths, their speeds were inconsistent, and their location around the nucleus could change based on how much energy they had. It was no longer accurate to depict electrons as traveling in straight paths. Instead, physicists began to represent them by an electron cloud that could suggest where electrons might be at any given time. The electron cloud model is the current model of the