Planetary model

The Bohr planetary model, with carbon as example. 

Particularly spectra and quantum theory seemed to indicate an order. A planetary model almost suggested itself, but according to classical physics, the moving electrons should emit energy and consequently collapse into the nucleus. The 28-year-old Niels Bohr ignored this principle and postulated that the electrons in these orbits were "out of law". This clearly meant that classical physics could not describe or explain the properties of the atoms. The framework of physical theory came crashing down. Fundamentally new models had to be developed.1... 

It is necessary to postulate a dynamic charge distribution as in the well-known, but unrealistic planetary model of the atom. A stable electronic orbit can only be maintained by a constantly accelerated electron, which according to the principles of electrodynamics constitutes a source of radiation. The stability of the atom can simply not be accounted for in terms of classical mechanics. A radically different description of electronic behaviour is required. As a matter of fact, a radically different system of mechanics is required to describe electronic motion correctly and this is where a theoretical understanding of chemistry must start. 

The first application of quantum theory to a problem in chemistry was to account for the emission spectrum of hydrogen and at the same time explain the stability of the nuclear atom, which seemed to require accelerated electrons in orbital motion. This planetary model is rendered unstable by continuous radiation of energy. The Bohr postulate that electronic angular momentum should be quantized in order to stabilize unique orbits solved both problems in principle. The Bohr condition requires that... 

Rutherford performed several calculations that led him to an inescapable conclusion the atom is made up mainly of empty space, with a small, massive region of concentrated charge at the centre. Soon afterward, the charge on this central region was determined to be positive, and was named the atomic nucleus. Because Rutherford s atomic model, shown in Figure 3.5 on the next page, pictures electrons in motion around an atomic nucleus, chemists often call this the nuclear model of the atom. You may also see it referred to as a planetary model because the electrons resemble the planets in motion around a central body. 

Both the Rutherford and Bohr atomic models have been described as planetary models. In what ways is this comparison appropriate In what ways is this comparison misleading ... 

Using these ideas, Bohr developed a conceptual model in which an electron moving around the nucleus is restricted to certain distances from the nucleus, with these distances determined by the amount of energy the electron has. Bohr saw this as similar to how the planets are held in orbit around the sun at given distances from the sun. The allowed energy levels for any atom, therefore, could be graphically represented as orbits around the nucleus, as shown in Figure 5.13. Bohr s quantized model of the atom thus became known as the planetary model. 

Bohr s planetary model of the atom, in which electrons orbit the nucleus much like planets orbit the sun, is a graphical representation that helps us understand how electrons can possess only certain quantities of energy. 

Was this youT answeT An orbit is a distinct path followed by an object in its revolution around another object. In Bohr s planetary model of the atom, he proposed an analogy between electrons orbiting the atomic nucleus and planets orbiting the sun. 

Did Bohr think of his planetary model as an accurate representation of what an atom looks like ... 

The angular momentum or an electron moving in an orbit of the type described by Bohr is ail axial vector L = r x p, formed from the radial distance r between electron and nucleus and the linear momentum p of the electron relative lo a fixed nucleus. Figure 2 shows the customary method used to illustrate the axial vector L in terms of the orbital morion of any object, of which the electron of the Bohr atom is only one example. Although Bohr s planetary model needed only circular orbits lo explain the spectral lines observed in the spectrum of a hydrogen atom, subsequent... 

Fig. 9. Radial probability density distribution, derived from quantum-mechanical predictions. Ibr rubidium, along with Bohr planetary model for the same atom...

The planetary model of the atom was proposed by Rutherford in 1912 following the a particle scattering experiments of Geiger and Marsden, which showed most the mass of an atom to be concentrated in a tiny positive nucleus. The orbiting of light electrons resembles the problem of planetary motion first solved by Newton. 

For theoretical chemistry to succeed it must develop the power to elucidate the behaviour of chemical substances to the satisfaction of experimental chemists, known to operate at many different levels. Understanding is not promoted by the generation of numbers, however accurate or numerous, without a simple picture that tells the story. It is inevitable that the chain of reasoning must reduce the problem of understanding the behaviour of substances, to the understanding of molecules, atoms, electrons, and eventually the aether. Again, this ladder of understanding should not be obscured by complicated mathematical relationships that cannot be projected into a simple picture. Small wonder that the planetary model of the atom, inspired by Kepler, and discredited almost a hundred years ago, is still the preferred icon to represent nuclear installations and activity in the commercial world. Theoretical chemistry should also communicate with the predominantly nonscientist population of the world, but in order to tell a story it is first of all necessary to know the story. 

Prompted by the structure of the periodic table of the elements, electrons were assumed to occur in concentric shells around the nucleus with a positive charge of Z units, equal to the number of extranuclear electrons. In any period of 8 elements, arranged in order of increasing Z, electrons are postulated to occupy an increasing number of sites (from 1 to 8) at the corners of a cube centred at the nucleus. Any vacancy in the shell of eight enables the relevant atom to share an electron with a neighbouring atom to form a covalent bond and to complete the octet of electrons for that shell. This view has now endured for almost hundred years and still forms the basis for teaching elementary chemistry. The simple planetary model, proposed by Bohr, allows for only one electron per orbit and has little in common with the Lewis model. 

The nuclear concentration of mass anticipated Rutherford s model of the atom, and Bohr s planetary model by a decade. The spectral integers, linked to a standing-wave pattern, predates de Broglie s proposal by two decades. 

By the early twentieth century, chemists and physicists recognized that the atoms of which chemical elements are composed are themselves made up of electrons and protons, of electrically negative and positive subatomic particles that were the universal constituents of all chemical elements. Sir Joseph Thomson had discovered the electron in 1897. Ernest Rutherford postulated the existence of a positive nucleus in atoms in 1911, and he used this in developing his planetary model of the atom, with a positive center and orbiting electrons. He discovered the proton in 1919, in experiments on the disintegration of atomic nuclei. Much later, in 1932, the British physicist James Chadwick (1891— 1974) discovered a third subatomic particle, the electrically neutral neutron. 

Neils Bohr Planetary model of electrons Developed the idea of distinct energy levels where electrons could be found— similar to planets in the solar system... 

Figure 2-54 shows Kepler and his planetary model based on the regular solids [84], According to this model the greatest distance of one planet from the sun stands in a fixed ratio to the least distance of the next outer planet from the sun. There are five ratios describing the distances of the six planets which were known to Kepler. A regular solid can be interposed between two adjacent planets so that the inner planet, when at its greatest distance from the sun, lays on the inscribed sphere of the solid, while the outer planet, when at its least distance, lays on the circumscribed sphere. 

Arthur Koestler in The Sleepwalkers called this planetary model [86] ... a false inspiration, a supreme hoax of the Socratic daimon,... 

However, the planetary model which is also a densest packing model probably symbolizes Kepler s best attempt at attaining a unified... 

Figure 2-54. Johannes Kepler on Hungarian memorial stamp and his Planetary Model based on the regular solids [87],...

Quantum theory was developed primarily to find an explanation for the stability of atomic matter, specifically the planetary model of the hydrogen atom. In the Schrodinger formulation the correct equation was obtained by recognizing the wave-like properties of an electron. The first derivation by Schrodinger [30] was done by analogy with the relationship that was known to exist between wave optics and geometrical optics in the limit where the index of refraction, n does not change appreciably over distances of order A. This condition leads to the eikonal equation (T3.15)... 

Niels Bohr s planetary model of the hydrogen atom—in which a nucleus is surrounded by orbits of electrons—resembles the solar system. Electrons could be excited by quanta of energy and move to an outer orbit (excited level). They could also emit radiation when falling to their original orbit (ground state). Basic components of the Bohr model include the following ... 

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