Drawbacks of Rutherford’s model of atom

• Rutherford proposed that electrons revolve at a high speed in circular orbits around the positively charged nucleus. When a charged particle i. e. electron revolves around positively charge nucleus, it needs to be accelerated so as to keep it moving in circular orbits. However, according to electromagnetic theory, whenever a charged particle such as an electron is accelerated around another charged center ( nucleus ) which are under force of attraction, there will be continuous radiation of energy. This loss of energy would slow down the speed of the electron. This would reduce the radius of the electron–orbit. Eventually the electron would fall into the nucleus. The result would be that the atom would collapse. But this does not happen. Thus Rutherford’s atom could not explain the stability of the atom. Failure of Rutherford’s model i.e. reduction of radius of orbit is shown below.
• Rutherford proposed that electrons revolve around the nucleus in the fixed orbits. However, he did not specify the orbits and the number of electrons in each orbit.