Did the community accept the idea for Ernest Rutherford's atom model?

Answer 1

Rutherford designed an experiment where he shot radioactive alpha particles (don't ask) through gold foil. At the time, the expected results were that the electrons would blast right through the gold with only a little deflection due to the slightly positive charge the atoms where believed to carry. To everyone's amazement, the ray went right through the foil and some electrons where deflected at a constant ratio. This would be like shooting a bullet through a piece of poster board (only on a much smaller scale of course). One would expect the bullet t just blast right through the poster, leaving a gaping hole. Well, imagine that the bullet went through without leaving a scratch on the board. The only logical explanation was that the atom is mostly empty space.

Answer 2

Like many physics breakthroughs of the time, his was merely a stepping stone to the final realization. Personal opinion, I think that his model was easier to visualize for the scientific community as well as the common folk (we still use it today).

"Rutherford's model did not make any new headway in explaining the electron-structure of the atom; in this regard Rutherford merely mentioned earlier atomic models in which a number of tiny electrons circled the nucleus like planets around the sun, or a ring around a planet (such as Saturn). However, by implication, Rutherford's concentration of most of the atom's mass into a very small core made a planetary model an even more likely metaphor than before, as such a core would contain most of the atom's mass, in an analogous way to the Sun containing most of the solar system's mass."

"A month after Rutherford's paper appeared, the proposal regarding the exact identity of atomic number and nuclear charge was made by Antonius van den Broek, and later confirmed experimentally within two years, by Henry Moseley."

"Despite its inaccuracy, the Rutherford model caught the imagination of the public in a way that the more correct Bohr model did not, and has continually been used as a symbol for atoms and atomic energy."

Answer 3

yes