Bohr’s Hydrogen Atom

Starting from experimental results on alpha particle deflection, in 1911–1912 E. Rutherford[aut]Rutherford, Ernest had hypothesized the existence of an atomic nucleus, which had to be considerably smaller than the atom itself and surrounded by a distribution of negative charge. Rutherford[aut]Rutherford, Ernest had not delved into the specifics of electron motion, realizing that the distribution of electrons could easily lead to electromagnetic instability issues. In this chapter we will discuss how N. Bohr[aut]Bohr, Niels addressed these aspects with his own atomic model, introduced in 1913 and initially proposed for the hydrogen atom. Moreover, we will show how Bohr[aut]Bohr, Niels’s model successfully explained characteristic lines in the atomic emission spectrum by theorizing orbits with discrete energy values for individual atomic electrons. Then, we will describe the experimental proof of Bohr[aut]Bohr, Niels’s theory given by H. Moseley[aut]Morley, Edward Williams between 1913 and 1914. We will conclude by dealing with A. Sommerfeld[aut]Sommerfeld, Arnold Johannes Wilhelm’s work of 1916, which provided a general rule for the quantization of “periodic” systems.