![]() Quantum theoryīohr's concept of complementarity, which he wrote about in a number of essays between 19, states that an electron can be viewed in two ways, either as a particle or as a wave, but never both at the same time. Atomic Energy Project during World War II, Bohr was an outspoken advocate for the peaceful application of atomic physics. This theory was instrumental in the first attempts to split uranium atoms in the 1930s, an important step in the development of the atomic bomb.ĭespite his contributions to the U.S. According to his liquid droplet theory, a liquid drop provides an accurate representation of an atom's nucleus. Liquid droplet theoryīohr's theoretical work contributed significantly to scientists' understanding of nuclear fission. 107 on the periodic table of elements, is named for him. ![]() The Bohr model shows the atom as a small, positively charged nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons.īohr was the first to discover that electrons travel in separate orbits around the nucleus and that the number of electrons in the outer orbit determines the properties of an element. (Image credit: Boris15 Shutterstock) Atomic modelīohr's greatest contribution to modern physics was the atomic model. He believed that nations should be completely open with one another and wrote down these views in his Open Letter to the United Nations in 1950.Ī stylized representation of a lithium atom illustrates Niels Bohr's atomic model, that an atom is a small, positively charged nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons. He dedicated his work toward the peaceful use of atomic physics and toward solving political problems arising from the development of atomic weapons of destruction. It was important to him, however, to use his skills for good and not violence. He spent the last two years of the war in England and the United States, where he got involved with the Atomic Energy Project. When the Nazis invaded Denmark in World War II, Bohr managed to escape to Sweden. Later in life, he became president of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences, as well as a member of scientific academies all over the world. In the same year that he began his studies with Rutherford, Bohr married the love of his life, Margaret Nørlund, with whom he had six sons. This work earned him a Nobel Prize of his own in 1922. In 1920, he was appointed the head of the Institute for Theoretical Physics.Ĭombining Rutherford's description of the nucleus and Planck's theory about quanta, Bohr explained what happens inside an atom and developed a picture of atomic structure. He went back to Copenhagen University in 1916 to become a professor of theoretical physics. Under Rutherford's tutelage, Bohr began studying the properties of atoms.īohr held a lectureship in physics at Copenhagen University from 1913 to 1914 and went on to hold a similar position at Victoria University in Manchester from 1914 to 1916. Thompson in England when he was introduced to Ernest Rutherford, whose discovery of the nucleus and development of an atomic model had earned him a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1908. However, the model assumed electrons in the shells didn't interact with each other and couldn't explain why electrons seemed to stack in an irregular manner.In 1912, Bohr was working for the Nobel laureate J.J. It also explained why the noble gases were inert and why atoms on the left side of the periodic table attract electrons, while those on the right side lose them. For example, the shell model explained why atoms got smaller moving across a period (row) of the periodic table, even though they had more protons and electrons. The model explained some of the atomic properties of heavier atoms, which had never been reproduced before. ![]() Thus, the Bohr model for heavier atoms described electron shells. Once the level was full, additional electrons would be bumped up to the next level. Bohr believed each electron orbit could only hold a set number of electrons. More electrons were required to cancel out the positive charge of all of these protons. Heavier atoms contain more protons in the nucleus than the hydrogen atom.
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