Question

State one major drawback of Rutherford's model.

Answer 1

Drawbacks of Rutherford’s model are listed below:

• Rutherford’s model failed to explain the stability of atoms. According to Rutherford’s model, electrons are revolving around the nucleus. This means electrons would be in a state of acceleration all the time. Since electrons are charged particles, therefore, electron revolving in a circular orbit should continuously emit energy. It is because whenever a charged particle is accelerated it emits energy. As a result of this, the revolving electron would lose energy and would slow down. So, it would no longer be able to resist the attractive force of the nucleus. Hence, it would move closer and closer to the nucleus and would finally fall into the nucleus by following a circular path. This means the atom should collapse but actually, we know atom is stable.
• Rutherford’s model does not explain the distribution of electrons around the nucleus.
• Rutherford’s model does not tell anything about the energy of electrons.