plum pudding model

English

Etymology

The electrons are viewed as negatively-charged "plums" in a positively-charged "pudding".

Proper noun

the plum pudding model

1. (historical, physics) An obsolete scientific model of the atom, devised shortly after the discovery of the electron but before the discovery of the atomic nucleus, and according to which the atom is composed of electrons surrounded by a soup of positive charge to balance the electrons' negative charges. It was disproved in 1909.

See also

• Thomson's hypothesis