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ATOMIC MODELS

Model simply means a description or analogy used to help visualize something that cannot be directly observed. The simplest basic part of a matter is atom. Dalton Atomic Theory made the world believe that the atom is indivisible part of an element. However, this was debunked by J. J. Thomson in 1897 when he discovered a particle that is smaller in size and less massive than the smallest atom. He then said that atom is divisible, that it contains a uniformly distributed positive charged particles (proton) with the negative particles (electrons) embedded in it. However, J. J. Thomson was corrected by his student, Rutherford, in 1911 by giving the correct planetary arrangement of various atomic particles and the reason while particle got scattered. The great Bohr model will also be explored in details for us to have the real knowledge of photo-electric emission and spectral lines. 1.1 Thomson Model or Plum Pudding Model In 1897, J. J. Thomson debunked the famous believe of John Daltons Atomic Theory that atom is indivisible after he discovered the electron in his work. Thomson's notion of the electron came from his work with a nineteenth century scientific curiosity the cathode ray tube. For years scientists had known that if an electric current was passed through a vacuum tube, a stream of glowing material could be seen; however, no one could explain why. Thomson found that the mysterious glowing stream would bend toward a positively charged electric plate. Thomson theorized, and was later proven correct, that the stream was in fact made up of small particles, pieces of atoms that carried a negative charge. These particles were later named electrons. After Eugen Goldsteins 1886 discovery that atoms had positive charges, Thomson imagined that atoms looked like pieces of raisin bread or plum pudding, a structure in which clumps of small, negatively charged electron (the "raisins") were scattered inside a smear of positive charges. In 1908, Ernest Rutherford, a former student of Thomson's, proved Thomson's raisin bread structure incorrect.

Fig 1.0: J. J. Thomson Atomic Model 1 (Plum Pudding Model) In summary, J. J. Thomson proposed that an atom can be considered as a sphere of uniformly distributed positive charge in which there are electrons distributed symmetrically. The electrons must be held by the positive charges by electrostatic forces. The mutual repulsions between the electrons are balanced by the force of attraction towards the centre of the sphere.

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