One limitation of early atomic models, such as Dalton's atomic theory or the Rutherford model, is that they do not accurately explain the behavior of electrons in an atom. For example, Rutherford's model depicted electrons orbiting the nucleus in defined paths similar to planets orbiting the sun. However, this model could not account for the stability of atoms or the observed emission and absorption spectra of elements.
The Bohr model improved upon this by quantizing the orbits, but it still had limitations, particularly for complex atoms. Ultimately, quantum mechanics provided a more accurate framework for understanding atomic structure, introducing concepts like electron clouds and probabilistic distributions, which go beyond the simplistic orbits of earlier models.
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