Rutherford's model of the atom described a dense, heavy, positively charged nucleus surrounded by negative electrons that balance out the charge of the atom. He also concluded that the atom is mostly made up of empty space.

Rutherford wanted to test the accepted theory of his day proposed by JJ Thompson where the atom was considered a round mass made of negative and positive charged particles all mixed together, called a plum pudding model.

He bombarded a thin sheet of gold with positively charged particles (alpha particles were used) to see if they would pass straight through the foil as expected. However some particles bounced back from the foil or passed through at an angle (were deflected), suggesting the gold atoms were not a homogeneous mix of positive and negative.

The following are the drawbacksof Rutherford atomic model.1) inability to explain the stabilityof atom2) inability to explain the concept of electronic configuration and energy levels of shell3) inability to explain the properties of atoms to form molecule.