Question #f6701
1 Answer
The Plum Pudding model stated that atoms are positive spheres with randomly placed negative Electrons. By defining the location of the positive and negative charges, this model was easily surpassed.
Explanation:
J.J. Thompson's model seems primitive when compared to the current understanding of atoms, but he simply did not have enough information to make it any better.
When Ernest Rutherford performed the famous gold foil experiment and discovered the nucleus, he opened the doors to even further research and brought us much closer to the true nature of atoms.
Niels Bohr finally determined that Electrons travel around the nucleus in distinct energy levels. However, his model is still far from reality because it depicts their paths as fixed orbits similar to that of the planets around the sun.
This was fixed in 1926 when Erwin Schrödinger developed the Electron Cloud model. This model acknowledges the fact that Electrons move too quickly for anyone to determine exactly where they are at any one time. Instead, it gives many possible locations. The more dense areas are more likely to contain an electron and vice versa.
On top of all of that there are four different Electron orbital shapes. They are called s, p, d, and f, but that is not really relevant to your question.
Source:
"Development of the Atomic Theory." Atomic Structure, Periodicity, and Matter. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2016.
