2. The plum pudding model is one of several
historical scientific models of the atom. First
proposed by J. J. Thomson in 1904[1] soon
after the discovery of the electron, but
before the discovery of the atomic nucleus,
the model tried to explain two properties of
atoms then known: that electrons are
negatively charged particles and that atoms
have no net electric charge. The plum
pudding model has electrons surrounded by a
volume of positive charge, like negatively
charged "plums" embedded in a positively
charged "pudding".
3.
4. In this model, atoms were known to consist of negatively charged
sub-atomic particles. Though Thomson called them "corpuscles", they
were more commonly called "electrons" which G. J. Stoney proposed
as the "fundamental unit quantity of electricity" in 1891.[2] At the
time, atoms were known to have no net electric charge. Thomson
knew that atoms must have a source of positive charge to
counterbalance the negative charge of the electrons.[3][4] Thomson
published his proposed model in the March 1904 edition of
the Philosophical Magazine, the leading British science journal of the
day. In Thomson's view:
the atoms of the elements consist of a number of negatively
electrified corpuscles enclosed in a sphere of uniform positive
electrification, ...[5]
With this model, Thomson abandoned his 1890 "nebular atom"
hypothesis based on the vortex atomic theory in which atoms were
composed of immaterial vortices and suggested that there were
similarities between the arrangement of vortices and periodic
regularity found among the chemical elements.[6]:44–45 Being an astute
and practical scientist, Thomson based his atomic model on known
experimental evidence of the day. His proposal of a positive volume
charge reflects the nature of his scientific approach to discovery
which was to propose ideas to guide future experiments.
5. The difference between Thomson's model of the
atom and Rutherford's model was that Thomson's
model had atoms that have smaller particles
called electrons and Rutherford's model had
electrons move about a nucleus.