# 6.2 The bohr model  (Page 2/9)

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In 1913, Niels Bohr attempted to resolve the atomic paradox by ignoring classical electromagnetism’s prediction that the orbiting electron in hydrogen would continuously emit light. Instead, he incorporated into the classical mechanics description of the atom Planck’s ideas of quantization and Einstein’s finding that light consists of photons whose energy is proportional to their frequency. Bohr assumed that the electron orbiting the nucleus would not normally emit any radiation (the stationary state hypothesis), but it would emit or absorb a photon if it moved to a different orbit. The energy absorbed or emitted would reflect differences in the orbital energies according to this equation:

$\mid \text{Δ}E\mid =\mid {E}_{\text{f}}-{E}_{\text{i}}\mid =h\nu =\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\frac{hc}{\lambda }$

In this equation, h is Planck’s constant and E i and E f are the initial and final orbital energies, respectively. The absolute value of the energy difference is used, since frequencies and wavelengths are always positive. Instead of allowing for continuous values for the angular momentum, energy, and orbit radius, Bohr assumed that only discrete values for these could occur (actually, quantizing any one of these would imply that the other two are also quantized). Bohr’s expression for the quantized energies is:

${E}_{n}=\text{−}\frac{k}{{n}^{2}}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}},\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}n=1,\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}2,\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}3,\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\dots$

In this expression, k is a constant comprising fundamental constants such as the electron mass and charge and Planck’s constant. Inserting the expression for the orbit energies into the equation for Δ E gives

$\text{Δ}E=k\left(\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\frac{1}{{n}_{1}^{2}}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}-\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\frac{1}{{n}_{2}^{2}}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\right)=\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\frac{hc}{\lambda }$

or

$\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\frac{1}{\lambda }\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\frac{k}{hc}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\left(\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\frac{1}{{n}_{1}^{2}}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}-\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\frac{1}{{n}_{2}^{2}}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\right)$

which is identical to the Rydberg equation for ${R}_{\infty }=\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\frac{k}{hc}.$ When Bohr calculated his theoretical value for the Rydberg constant, ${R}_{\infty },$ and compared it with the experimentally accepted value, he got excellent agreement. Since the Rydberg constant was one of the most precisely measured constants at that time, this level of agreement was astonishing and meant that Bohr’s model was taken seriously, despite the many assumptions that Bohr needed to derive it.

The lowest few energy levels are shown in [link] . One of the fundamental laws of physics is that matter is most stable with the lowest possible energy. Thus, the electron in a hydrogen atom usually moves in the n = 1 orbit, the orbit in which it has the lowest energy. When the electron is in this lowest energy orbit, the atom is said to be in its ground electronic state (or simply ground state). If the atom receives energy from an outside source, it is possible for the electron to move to an orbit with a higher n value and the atom is now in an excited electronic state (or simply an excited state) with a higher energy. When an electron transitions from an excited state (higher energy orbit) to a less excited state, or ground state, the difference in energy is emitted as a photon. Similarly, if a photon is absorbed by an atom, the energy of the photon moves an electron from a lower energy orbit up to a more excited one. We can relate the energy of electrons in atoms to what we learned previously about energy. The law of conservation of energy says that we can neither create nor destroy energy. Thus, if a certain amount of external energy is required to excite an electron from one energy level to another, that same amount of energy will be liberated when the electron returns to its initial state ( [link] ). In effect, an atom can “store” energy by using it to promote an electron to a state with a higher energy and release it when the electron returns to a lower state. The energy can be released as one quantum of energy, as the electron returns to its ground state (say, from n = 5 to n = 1), or it can be released as two or more smaller quanta as the electron falls to an intermediate state, then to the ground state (say, from n = 5 to n = 4, emitting one quantum, then to n = 1, emitting a second quantum).

#### Questions & Answers

What is stoichometry
ngwuebo Reply
what is atom
yinka Reply
An indivisible part of an element
ngwuebo
the smallest particle of an element which is indivisible is called an atom
Aloaye
An atom is the smallest indivisible particle of an element that can take part in chemical reaction
Alieu
is carbonates soluble
Ebuka Reply
what is the difference between light and electricity
Joshua Reply
What is atom? atom can be defined as the smallest particles
Adazion
what is the difference between Anode and nodes?
Adazion
What's the net equations for the three steps of dissociation of phosphoric acid?
Lisa Reply
what is chemistry
Prince Reply
the study of matter
Reginald
what did the first law of thermodynamics say
Starr Reply
energy can neither be created or distroyed it can only be transferred or converted from one form to another
Adedeji
Graham's law of Diffusion
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what is melting vaporization
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melting and boiling point explain in term of molecular motion and Brownian movement
Anieke
Scientific notation for 150.9433962
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what is aromaticity
Usman Reply
aromaticity is a conjugated pi system specific to organic rings like benzene, which have an odd number of electron pairs within the system that allows for exceptional molecular stability
Pookieman
what is caustic soda
Ogbonna Reply
sodium hydroxide (NaOH)
Kamaluddeen
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Rihanat
is simply means a condensed water vapour
Kamaluddeen
advantage and disadvantage of water to human and industry
Abdulrahman Reply
a hydrocarbon contains 7.7 percent by mass of hydrogen and 92.3 percent by mass of carbon
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how many types of covalent r there
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how many covalent bond r there
JArim
they are three 3
Adazion
TYPES OF COVALENT BOND-POLAR BOND-NON POLAR BOND-DOUBLE BOND-TRIPPLE BOND. There are three types of covalent bond depending upon the number of shared electron pairs. A covalent bond formed by the mutual sharing of one electron pair between two atoms is called a "Single Covalent bond.
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Source:  OpenStax, Chemistry. OpenStax CNX. May 20, 2015 Download for free at http://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11760/1.9
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