Question

State in brief the drawbacks of Rutherford's atomic model correlating them with the postulates of Bohr’s atomic model.

Answer 1

Drawbacks of Rutherfords’s Atomic Model:

1. The comparison of electrons with the planets in the solar system is the main drawback of Rutherford’s model. Because electrically charged particles in motion lose energy (radiate energy). As a result, electrons revolving the nucleus should after losing energy, fall in spiral path and colLapse.
2. If it was so atom should be highly unstable, but we know that atom is structurally stable. Rutherford’s model could not explain this stability.

Postulates of Bohr’s Atomic Model:

1. Electrons revolve around the nucleus in fixed orbits or energy levels or shells.
2. While revolving around the nucleus in an orbit, an electron does not lose energy nor does it gain energy.
3. The integer ‘n’ represents the various energy levels 1, 2, 3 or k, l, m starting from the innermost.
4. An electron revolving in a particular orbit, on gaining a certain amount of energy, jumps to the next orbit and vice versa.
   These postulates explain the cause of the stability of the atom.