Given below are two statements:
Statement I : Rutherford's gold foil experiment cannot explain the line spectrum of hydrogen atom.
Statement II : Bohr's model of hydrogen atom contradicts Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.
In the light of the above statements, choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:
Show Hint
Know the key failures of early atomic models. Rutherford's model was unstable according to classical physics and couldn't explain line spectra. Bohr's model, while successful for hydrogen's spectrum, failed for multi-electron atoms and violated the fundamental Uncertainty Principle.
Analysis of Statement I:
Rutherford's model proposed a nuclear atom with electrons orbiting the nucleus, much like planets around the sun. According to classical electromagnetic theory, an accelerating charged particle (like an orbiting electron) must continuously radiate energy. This would cause the electron to spiral into the nucleus, producing a continuous spectrum, not the discrete line spectrum observed for hydrogen. Therefore, Rutherford's model could not explain the line spectrum. Statement I is true.
Analysis of Statement II:
Bohr's model postulates that electrons move in well-defined circular orbits with a fixed radius and a fixed velocity for each orbit. This means that at any given moment, both the position (the location on the orbit) and the momentum (mass times the fixed velocity) of the electron are known with certainty. This is a direct violation of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which states that it is impossible to simultaneously determine with perfect accuracy both the position and momentum of a particle. Statement II is true.
Since both statements are true, the correct option is (A).
