Rutherford and Bohr are both important in the history of the development of atomic theory and how it relates to an atom's structure. Prior to Rutherford's famous gold sheet experiment, everyone accepted Thomson's "plum pudding" model. Since the overall charge of an atom is neutral, it was thought that the atom was a sphere of positive charge with negative electrons spread evenly throughout the atom the way that raisins exist in plum pudding.

Rutherford's gold sheet experiment showed that this atomic model was wrong. Instead, his model arranged the protons into a very small and very dense central nucleus. He then said that all of the negative electrons must orbit the nucleus in the way that planets orbit the sun. Bohr's model is not that much different. There is still a central nucleus and electrons still orbit around the nucleus. Bohr's breakthrough and contribution was in showing that the electrons exist at specific energy levels. Bohr's model also showed that electrons are able to "jump" between energy levels.