RAJKIYA SARVODAYA BAL VIDYALAYA
NO.2, SHAKARPUR, EAST DELHI, DELHI-92
PROJECT
WORK
NAME – VIPUL
KRISHNA
CLASS – 11TH A
ROLL NO – 41
SUBJECT – CHEMISTRY
TOPIC – RUTHERFORD
ATOMIC MODEL
SUBMITTED TO – AK
THAKUR SIR
Ernest Rutherford(1871-1937)
Ernest Rutherford (1871 - 1937) was a New Zealand-born British physicist,
who postulated the nuclear structure of the atom, which led to the
exploration of nuclear physics. He discovered alpha and beta rays, and
proposed the laws of radioactive decay. He is often called the "father of
nuclear physics".
Ernest Rutherford was born in 1871, in Nelson, New Zealand. Ernest
received a double major in Mathematics and Physical Science from
Canterbury College, the University of New Zealand, Wellington in 1893. He
was awarded an Exhibition Science Scholarship, enabling him to go to
Trinity College, Cambridge, the U.K., as a research student at the Cavendish
Laboratory under J.J. Thomson, who was an expert on electromagnetic
radiation. In 1895, Rutherford developed a simple apparatus to detect
electromagnetic waves, or radio waves.
RUTHERFORD ATOMIC MODEL
According to Rutherford’s Atomic Model, the positively charged particles and
the majority of the mass of an atom were said to be concentrated in a small
volume. He referred to this area of the atoms as the NUCLEUS
Another idea put forward by Rutherford’s model of an atom was that an
atom’s nucleus should be surrounded by negatively charged electrons.
Rutherford also suggested that the electrons circle the nucleus at the speed
of light. He called these elliptical paths orbits.
HISTORY
The idea of the atom was first proposed by the Greek philosopher
Democritus in 400 BCE. The concept of atoms and other small particles is
also known to early Indians. But the modern study of atoms starts with John
Dalton in 1803 when he first proposed the idea of the atom with a modern
understanding of science. He proposed that atoms are indivisible particles
until in 1897 negatively charged particle electrons were first discovered by
British physicist J.J. Thomson.
J.J. Thomson proposed a plum pudding model of the atom also
called THOMSON’S ATOMIC MODEL but it had some limitations.
It was unable to explain certain experimental results relating to the atomic
structure of various elements.
After that, a new model of atoms was proposed by “Ernest Rutherford,” a
British physicist, and the model is known as Rutherford’s Model of Atoms. He
conducted an experiment in which he bombarded -particles in a thin gold
sheet and concluded that atoms also had positively charged particles at the
centre of the atom where all its mass is concentrated.
Rutherford Gold Foil Experiment
To determine how electrons are arranged in an atom, the Alpha(α) Particle
Scattering Experiment was organized by Rutherford. Rapidly moving α-
particles were directed to bombard a thin sheet of gold.
Gold foil was selected so as to obtain an extremely thin layer. The
thickness of the gold foil was about 1000 atoms.
Doubly-charged helium ions are known as α-particles. Rapidly moving α-
particles possess a great deal of energy, as they have a mass of about 4
amu.
The hypothesis was that α-particles would be deflected by the sub-atomic
particles in the gold atoms. Rutherford didn’t expect to witness significant
deflections as the α-particles were considerably heavier than the protons.
However, the experiment produced entirely unanticipated results.
Observations of Rutherford’s Gold Foil
Experiment
Rutherford observed the following from his α-particle scattering experiment:
1. A large percentage of alpha particles travelled through the gold film
without being deflected, indicating that the majority of space in an atom is
empty. As a result, an atom’s main portion must be empty.
2. The positive charge in an atom is concentrated in a relatively small
volume and is not dispersed evenly. When bombarded, the gold foil only
deflected a small number of alpha particles. They experienced extremely
slight angles of deflection. So he arrived at the stated conclusion.
3. Very few alpha particles had deflected back or at large angles. In addition,
relatively few particles had 180o deflected. As a result, he came to the
conclusion that the positively charged particles only occupied a small
portion of an atom’s overall volume.
Conclusion of Rutherford Gold Foil
Experiment
Rutherford concluded the following from his observations:
Because a large proportion of the α-particles directed toward the gold
sheet went through it without any deflection, so, the majority of the space
in an atom is vacant.
Only a few α-particles were diverted off their route, suggesting that the
atom’s positive charge takes up relatively little space.
Since a very tiny percentage of α-particles completely rebounded, this
implied that the atom’s mass and positive charge are concentrated in a
small volume and not uniformly distributed.
Postulates of Rutherford Atomic Model
Here are the major postulates of Rutherford’s atomic model based on
observations and conclusions of the gold foil experiment:
Positively charged particles make up an atom. The majority of an atom’s
mass was contained in a very small area. The nucleus of an atom was the
term used to describe this area of the atom. Later it was discovered that
neutrons and protons make up the atom’s extremely tiny and dense
nucleus.
The electrons that surround an atom’s nucleus are negatively charged
particles. The electrons rotate faster in a fixed circular path around the
nucleus. Such a fixed circular path is called the orbit.
Since electrons are negatively charged and the tightly packed nucleus is
positively charged, an atom either has no net charge or is electrically
neutral. The nucleus and electrons are held together by a strong electric
force of attraction.
Drawbacks of Rutherford’s Model of Atom
There are several limitations or drawbacks of Rutherford’s atomic model,
which are as follows:
Rutherford’s Model predicts that electrons will orbit around the positively
charged nucleus, which is not anticipated to be stable. A charged particle
in rapid motion along a circular route, would lose energy continually and
eventually collapse into the nucleus. This causes an atom to be unstable,
whereas we know that atoms are extremely stable.
Because it merely postulated the existence of protons in the nucleus, the
Rutherford Model could not resolve the problem of atomic mass.
Rutherford’s Atomic Model doesn’t explain the arrangement of electrons
in the atom, which makes this model incomplete in this regard.
Summary
Ernest Rutherford discovered the nucleus of the atom in 1911. He
sent a beam of alpha particles toward gold foil and observed the way
the particles were deflected by the gold atoms. From his results, he
concluded that all of the positive charge and virtually all of the mass of
an atom are concentrated in one tiny area, called the nucleus, and the
rest of the atom is mostly empty space.
In Rutherford’s planetary model of the atom, the electrons move
through empty space around the tiny positive nucleus like planets
orbiting the sun.
Thank you
