Mottelson and James Rainwater for their work in determining the asymmetrical shapes of certain atomic nuclei. 8, 2009, Copenhagen) was a Danish physicist who shared the 1975 Nobel Prize for Physics with Ben R. Hinne Hettema: Bohr's theory of the atom 1913–1923: A case study in the progress of scientific research programmes. Bohr (born June 19, 1922, Copenhagen, Den.died Sept. Erkenntnis 37(2), 223–247, 249–273 (1992)Įckert: Die Atomphysiker: Eine Geschichte der Theoretischen Physik am Beispiel der Som-merfeldschule (Braunschweig 1993) Gerhard Zoubek, Bernhard Lauth: Zur Rekonstruktion des Bohrschen Forschungsprogramms I & II. American Journal of Physics 49, 223–231 (1981)Ībraham Pais: Niels Bohr's Times, in Physics, philosophy and polity (Oxford 1990) Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 10, 123–186 (1979) Kragh: Niels Bohr's second atomic theory. Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 1, 211–290 (1969) Kramers, Helge Holst: The atom and the Bohr theory of its structure (Copenhagen 1923) (Amsterdam 1972–2007 contains in Volumes 2 and 4 in particular the 1912 “Rutherford Memorandum” and the 1913 Bohr “trilogy” On the constitution of atoms and molecules I–III, from Philosophical Magazine, as well as the letters)Īrnold Sommerfeld: Atombau und Spektrallinien (Braunschweig 1919) The favorite heuristic models for the atom in the years around 1910 also for Bohr was Thomson's that came in various imprecise and at times conflicting variations but was nonetheless able to serve in this way the purpose in helping to conceptualize stability, light emission and the existence of a periodic system of elements. For this reason also the ► Rutherford atom was largely ignored until it could be reinterpreted as a predecessor of the Bohr atom. As a consequence in the years before world war I concern with detailed atomic models was not widespread.

Jean Perrin (1870–1942), Wilhelm Meyer (1853–1910), or Hantaro Nagaoka (1856–1950) ► atomic models) and some of them immediately realized the difference: Since electric forces were both attractive and repulsive it was hard to understand how stable configurations could result at all. Between 19 various physicists and science popularizers draw the analogy between atoms and planetary systems (e.g. For this reason any consideration of Bohr's atom has to take into account both the historical context of its creation and the long and diverse processes of reception within science, education and public that gave rise to much misinterpretation of Bohr's intentions, his actual work and its physical or realistic interpretation.įor the question of the genesis of the Bohr model one has to go back to the beginning of the twentieth century, when it became widely recognized that both atoms contain electrons and at the same time were almost fully penetrable by electron bombardment. In stark contrast to this omnipresence, historically, the Bohr atom may be identified as the best available theory for the atom only for a period of roughly ten years between 19. The picture of ► electrons revolving round a nucleus on select avenues has become the icon of the atomic age. The model of Niels Bohr (1885–1962) for the atom is since long just the one and only conception for atoms of the vast majority of educated people.

Neils bohr model of atom