An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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A model suggested in 1913 to explain the stability of atoms which classical electrodynamics was unable to account for. According to the classical view of the atom, the energy of an electron moving around a nucleus must continually diminish until the electron falls onto the nucleus. The Bohr model solves this paradox with the aid of three postulates (→ Bohr's first postulate, → Bohr's second postulate, → Bohr's third postulate). On the whole, an atom has stable orbits such that an electron moving in them does not radiate electromagnetic waves. An electron radiates only when making a transition from an orbit of higher energy to one with lower energy. The frequency of this radiation is related to the difference between the energies of the electron in these two orbits, as expressed by the equation hν = ε₁ - ε₂, where h is → Planck's constant and ν the radiation frequency. The electron needs to gain energy to jump to a higher orbit. It gets that extra energy by absorbing a quantum of light (→ photon), which excites the jump. The electron does not remain on the higher orbit and returns to its lower energy orbit releasing the extra energy as radiation. Bohr's model answered many scientific questions in its time though the model itself is oversimplified and, in the strictest sense, incorrect. Electrons do not orbit the nucleus like a planet orbiting the Sun; rather, they behave as → standing waves. Same as → Bohr atom.

→ Bohr; → model.