Bohr model
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- OpenStax - Chemistry 2e - The Bohr Model
- Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University - Department of Physics and Astronomy College of Arts and Sciences - The Bohr Atom
- University of Rochester - Department of Physics and Astronomy - The Bohr Model
- PNAS - Physical Sciences - Bohr's 1913 molecular model revisited
- UEN Digital Press with Pressbooks - Introductory Chemistry - Bohr’s Theory
- The Chemistry LibreTexts - Bohr Diagrams of Atoms and Ions
- Kahn Academy - The Bohr model
- Space.com - The Bohr model: The famous but flawed depiction of an atom
- Key People:
- Niels Bohr
- Related Topics:
- atom
Bohr model, description of the structure ofatoms, especially that ofhydrogen, proposed (1913) by the Danish physicistNiels Bohr. The Bohrmodel of the atom, a radical departure from earlier, classical descriptions, was the first that incorporatedquantum theory and was thepredecessor of whollyquantum-mechanical models. The Bohr model and all of its successors describe the properties of atomicelectrons in terms of a set of allowed (possible) values. Atoms absorb or emit radiation only when the electrons abruptly jump between allowed, or stationary, states. Direct experimental evidence for the existence of such discrete states was obtained (1914) by the German-born physicistsJames Franck andGustav Hertz.
Immediately before 1913, theRutherford model conceived of an atom as consisting of a tiny positively charged heavy core, called a nucleus, surrounded by light, planetary negative electrons revolving in circular orbits of arbitrary radii.
Bohramended that view of the motion of the planetary electrons to bring the model in line with the regular patterns (spectral series) of light emitted by realhydrogen atoms. By limiting the orbiting electrons to a series of circular orbits having discrete radii, Bohr could account for the series of discrete wavelengths in the emission spectrum of hydrogen. Light, he proposed, radiated from hydrogen atoms only when anelectron made a transition from an outer orbit to one closer to the nucleus. The energy lost by the electron in the abrupt transition is precisely the same as the energy of thequantum of emitted light.
