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  • Describe the mysteries of atomic spectra.
  • Explain Bohr’s theory of the hydrogen atom.
  • Explain Bohr’s planetary model of the atom.
  • Illustrate energy state using the energy-level diagram.
  • Describe the triumphs and limits of Bohr’s theory.

The great Danish physicist Niels Bohr (1885–1962) made immediate use of Rutherford’s planetary model of the atom. ( [link] ). Bohr became convinced of its validity and spent part of 1912 at Rutherford’s laboratory. In 1913, after returning to Copenhagen, he began publishing his theory of the simplest atom, hydrogen, based on the planetary model of the atom. For decades, many questions had been asked about atomic characteristics. From their sizes to their spectra, much was known about atoms, but little had been explained in terms of the laws of physics. Bohr’s theory explained the atomic spectrum of hydrogen and established new and broadly applicable principles in quantum mechanics.

A photograph of Niels Bohr.
Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, used the planetary model of the atom to explain the atomic spectrum and size of the hydrogen atom. His many contributions to the development of atomic physics and quantum mechanics, his personal influence on many students and colleagues, and his personal integrity, especially in the face of Nazi oppression, earned him a prominent place in history. (credit: Unknown Author, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mysteries of atomic spectra

As noted in Quantization of Energy , the energies of some small systems are quantized. Atomic and molecular emission and absorption spectra have been known for over a century to be discrete (or quantized). (See [link] .) Maxwell and others had realized that there must be a connection between the spectrum of an atom and its structure, something like the resonant frequencies of musical instruments. But, in spite of years of efforts by many great minds, no one had a workable theory. (It was a running joke that any theory of atomic and molecular spectra could be destroyed by throwing a book of data at it, so complex were the spectra.) Following Einstein’s proposal of photons with quantized energies directly proportional to their wavelengths, it became even more evident that electrons in atoms can exist only in discrete orbits.

This figure has two parts. Part a shows a discharge tube at the extreme left. Light from the discharge tube passes through a rectangular slit and a grating, going from left to right. From the grating, light of different colors falls on a photographic film. Part b of the figure shows the emission line spectrum for iron.
Part (a) shows, from left to right, a discharge tube, slit, and diffraction grating producing a line spectrum. Part (b) shows the emission line spectrum for iron. The discrete lines imply quantized energy states for the atoms that produce them. The line spectrum for each element is unique, providing a powerful and much used analytical tool, and many line spectra were well known for many years before they could be explained with physics. (credit for (b): Yttrium91, Wikimedia Commons)

In some cases, it had been possible to devise formulas that described the emission spectra. As you might expect, the simplest atom—hydrogen, with its single electron—has a relatively simple spectrum. The hydrogen spectrum had been observed in the infrared (IR), visible, and ultraviolet (UV), and several series of spectral lines had been observed. (See [link] .) These series are named after early researchers who studied them in particular depth.

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Source:  OpenStax, College physics. OpenStax CNX. Jul 27, 2015 Download for free at http://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11406/1.9
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