Bohr’s quantized orbital model was so intuitive that it seemed perfect. In Bohr’s model, electron orbitals were quantized (Photo Credit : sophielaliberte/Shutterstock)Īlso Read: How Has The Atomic Model Evolved Over The Years? The Electron CloudĮach of these models explained most of the mysteries that baffled the scientific community for decades. However, that’s a whole other discussion. Through this proof, Bohr’s model of the atom was able to explain certain phenomenon, such as the hydrogen spectrum. Rather, they revolve in well-defined orbitals at very specific energy levels, i.e., the orbitals are quantized. He proved that electrons surrounding the atom do not revolve arbitrarily. While Rutherford’s model gained widespread acceptance, one of his students, Neils Bohr, further refined the model. In Rutherford’s model, electrons revolved around the nucleus in arbitrary orbits (Photo Credit : Tschub/Shutterstock) Thus, he discarded the plum pudding model in favor of the classical atomic model that we see in popular media-a central nucleus surrounded by electrons. The areas where the particles passed through uninterrupted seemed to be largely empty, while the points at which they were deflected or rebounded seemed to hold a high concentration of the atom’s overall mass. This inconsistency led Rutherford to propose a new model of the atom.

However, Rutherford observed that while some alpha particles did pass right through, uninterrupted, a few were rebounded back to their point of origin.

If the plum pudding model were indeed accurate, there would be little to no deflection of alpha particles. Rutherford’s Gold Foil Experiment Set-Up (Photo Credit : Sergey Merkulov/Shutterstock) To test Thompson’s hypothesis, Ernest Rutherford conducted his world-famous gold foil experiment, in which he bombarded a piece of gold foil with alpha particles. Thomson’s Plum Pudding Model? Rutherford’s Model Of The Atom In the plum pudding model, electrons and protons were assumed to be uniformly distributed within the atom (Photo Credit : public domain/Wikimedia Commons)Īlso Read: What Is J.J. Thompson, who stated that electrons and protons are evenly spread out within an atom, in a form somewhat resembling ‘ plum pudding’. However, the jury was still out on how these particles were organized within the atom. One of the first explanations was given by J. I want to go further down the foggy path of the electron cloud, but let’s start from our very earliest understanding of electrons inside an atom and progress onward from there.īy the year 1910, scientists had discovered two major constituents of the atom, positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons (the neutron was discovered much later in 1932 by James Chadwick). Those with a curious inclination (like myself) probably aren’t happy with such a simplistic explanation. The region around the nucleus where an electron is most likely to be found is called the electron cloud (Photo Credit : dani3315/Shutterstock) This dense fog of probability is called the electron cloud.

Surrounding it is a “fog of probability” where an electron has the highest chances of being found. The denser the area, the greater the chance of finding an electron. The atom has a central nucleus consisting of protons and neutrons. As it turns out, that representation does little justice to the true image of an atom. I always assumed an electron to be a perfectly round, tiny sphere circling around a dense nucleus. Confused? Trust me, initially, I was too. However, as continued research into the matter has made the scientific community realize, that’s not actually how an atom looks. An atom is popularly illustrated as a bunch of electrons revolving around a central nucleus (Photo Credit : Yurchanka Siarhei/Shutterstock)

That’s the image of an atom that we’ve had reinforced in our brains all our lives. Even the comic book hero Atom decided to represent himself using this classical image of the atom. When you think of an atom, your mind probably conjures up an image of a central nucleus with a whole bunch of electrons revolving around it. That is the image we’ve seen in countless sci-fi shows, comic books and movies. The electron cloud is a cloud of probability surrounding the nucleus in an atom where one has the highest probability of finding an electron.

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