March 2014
Intermediate to advanced
624 pages
26h 33m
English
The results of emission spectra experiments led Niels Bohr to construct a model for the hydrogen atom, based on the mathematics of planetary systems. If the electron in the hydrogen atom has a series of planetary-type orbits available to it, it can be excited to an outer orbit and then can fall to any one of the inner orbits, giving off energy corresponding to one of the lines of Fig. 2–3. To develop the model, Bohr made several postulates:
Electrons exist in certain stable, circular orbits about the nucleus. This assumption implies that the orbiting electron does not give off radiation as classical electromagnetic theory would normally require of a charge experiencing angular acceleration; otherwise, the electron would not ...