what are the lmitations of rutherford model of an atom
Answers
Rutherford’s experiment was unable to explain certain things. They are:
Rutherford’s model was unable to explain the stability of an atom. According to Rutherford’s postulate, electrons revolve at a very high speed around a nucleus of an atom in a fixed orbit. However, Maxwell explained accelerated charged particles release electromagnetic radiations. Therefore, electrons revolving around the nucleus will release electromagnetic radiation.
The electromagnetic radiation will have energy from the electronic motion as a result of which the orbits will gradually shrink. Finally, the orbits will shrink and collapse in the nucleus of an atom. According to the calculations, if Maxwell’s explanation is followed Rutherford’s model will collapse with 10-8 seconds. Therefore, Rutherford atomic model was not following Maxwell’s theory and it was unable to explain an atom’s stability.
Rutherford’s theory was incomplete because it did not mention anything about the arrangement of electrons in the orbit. This was one of the major drawbacks of Rutherford atomic model.
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