The Arrival of Bohr’s Atomic Theory

David K. Ferry

Published Jan 2, 2019• 0 citations

Abstract

The aim of Niels Bohr’s “great” paper was to try to explain how Ernest Rutherford’s planetary model of the atom could exist. Bohr never used the words “quantum jump” in the paper, but it became very much in vogue shortly after this. Max Planck and even A. Einstein had not yet made the full evolution beyond classical physics, and the purely classical atomic views of Rutherford and H. Nagaoka did not provide the explanation of the absorption and emission spectra of hydrogen. In truth, Bohr’s “theory” consisted of a very few equations, with very great assumptions. As de Broglie’s work became known, he was hailed for his advances and he would join the list of Nobel Prizes for advances in quantum theory. Wolfgang Pauli did not particularly like the wave and particle approach that de Broglie introduced with his pilot waves in 1924, and would forcefully express these objections a few years later at the Solvay conference.

DOI: 10.1201/9781351207232-2

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