Who described the Plum Pudding model?

1 Answer
Jun 29, 2014

The plum pudding model of the atom by J. J. Thomson, who discovered the electron in 1897, was proposed in 1904 before the discovery of the atomic nucleus in order to add the electron to the atomic model.

In this model, the atom is composed of electrons surrounded by a soup of positive charge to balance the electrons' negative charges, like negatively charged "raisins" surrounded by positively charged "pudding".

The electrons were thought to be positioned throughout the atom, but with many structures possible for positioning multiple electrons, particularly rotating rings of electrons. Instead of a soup, the atom was also sometimes said to have had a "cloud" of positive charge.

With this model, Thomson abandoned his earlier "nebular atom" hypothesis in which the atom was composed of immaterial vortices.