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Bohr summarized these thoughts in his classic 1913 paper “On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules.” He had applied Planck’s quantum theory and resolved the theoretical instability of Rutherford’s atomic model. The Bohr atom, as this model is now known, resolved problems with the Rutherford atom and also cleverly explained the observed spectral lines of the hydrogen atom. Only if these orbiting electrons were raised to a higher energy level or dropped to a lower energy level would they either absorb or emit electromagnetic radiation. Bohr incorporated Planck’s quantum model and postulated that there were discrete energy levels (or shells) occupied by the orbiting electrons within which they could move but did not emit electromagnetic radiation. In 1913, Bohr proposed a brilliant modification of Rutherford’s atomic nucleus hypothesis. Contradictory to prevailing electromagnetic theory, the electrons in the Rutherford atom did not emit electromagnetic radiation. However, Rutherford’s model contained some fundamental difficulties. Thomson, Rutherford’s model had the electrons moving in circular orbits around a positively charged central nucleus. Breaking with the “plum pudding” model of the British scientist J. Rutherford had just introduced his nuclear atomic model. In the spring of 1912, Bohr joined Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) at his laboratory in Manchester, England, where he studied radioactivity and atomic theory. Bohr’s own son, Aage, would win the Nobel Prize for physics in 1975.īohr entered Copenhagen University in 1903 and earned his M.S.
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His younger brother, Harald, was a very skilled mathematician and an Olympic medalist (1908 silver, with the Danish soccer team). His mother, Ellen née Adler, came from a wealthy Jewish family that was prominent in the field of education. His father, Christian Bohr, was a professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen. He came from a very distinguished and accomplished family that provided a nurturing environment for his genius.
#NIELS BOHR ATOMIC THEORY FREE#
The electron in an atom is more stable than a free electron.Niels Henrik David Bohr was born on October 7, 1885, in Copenhagen, Denmark. It corresponds to an ionised atom where the electron and the nucleus are infinitely separated. It is the maximum energy that an electron can possess in an atom. These shells are numbered as one, two, three, four or termed as \(\rm \), the energy becomes zero. The electrons move around the nucleus with definite velocity in a certain fixed closed circular path called orbits (or) shells.The main postulates of Bohr’s model of atom are as follows: On this basis, Bohr proposed this theory to explain the structure of an atom. Bohr postulated that Planck’s Quantum theory applies to the electron that revolves around the nucleus. However, the concept of the nucleus as enunciated by the Rutherford Atomic Model was retained. It needed slight modifications that were made by a legendary scientist named Neil’s Bohr.īohr recognised that the lines in an atomic spectrum are related to the arrangement of electrons in that atom. For decades, many questions had been asked about atomic characteristics. In 1913, after returning to Copenhagen, he began publishing his theory of the simplest atom, hydrogen, based on the planetary model of the atom. Bohr became convinced of its validity and spent part of 1912 at Rutherford’s laboratory. The great Danish physicist Niels Bohr (1885–1962) made immediate use of Rutherford’s planetary model of the atom. Rutherford’s Atom Model was undoubtedly a breakthrough in atomic studies.
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