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Rutherford fired tiny alpha particles at solid objects such as gold foil.
He found that while most of the alpha particles passed right through
the gold foil, a small number of alpha particles passed through at an
angle and some bounced straight back like a tennis ball hitting a wall.
Fig. Interpreting Rutherford's Gold Foil Experiment
q1q 2
F
4 0 r 2
The radiated energy would come from the kinetic energy of the
orbiting electron; as this energy gets radiated away, there is less
centrifugal force to oppose the attractive force due to the nucleus.
The electron would quickly fall into the nucleus, following a trajectory
that became known as the death spiral of the electron.
Protons carry an equal, but opposite, charge to electrons, but protons are
much larger and heavier than electrons.
Neutrons do not have any electrical charge; they are electrically neutral.
As the atom gets larger, the number of protons increases, and so does the
number of electrons (in the neutral state of the atom).
Atoms of different elements are distinguished from each other by
their number of protons (the number of protons is constant for all
atoms of a single element; the number of neutrons and electrons
can vary under some circumstances).
While protons and neutrons are about the same size, the electron
is 1,840 times smaller than the two.
Thus, Classical theory of atoms explains that an atom
consists of: -
- Nucleus central part of it which is composed of
Protons - Positively charged
- 1.6012x10-19 e
- 1840 times mass of electron
Neutrons zero charge
approx. equal to mass of protons
- Electrons Negatively charged
- revolves around the nucleus
- 1.6012x10-19 e
- 1.907x10-31 kg
Bohrs Model
The larger the value of n, the larger the radius of the electron
orbit, and the greater the potential energy of the electron.
3. The radiation or uptake of energy by atom occurs only at
transition of an electron from one stationary orbit to another.
Thus ,quantum of light energy (photon) is radiated or is
emitted.
Key to Bohr's theory was the fact that the electron could only
"jump" and "fall" to precise energy levels, thus emitting a limited
spectrum of light.
Thus what Bohr was saying, in effect, is that the atom can exist
only in certain discrete energy states: the energy of the atom
is quantized.
Bohr noted that this quantization nicely explained the observed
emission spectrum of the hydrogen atom.
Not only did Bohr predict that electrons would occupy specific energy
levels, he also predicted that those levels had limits to the number of
electrons each could hold.
Under Bohr's theory, the maximum capacity of the first (or innermost)
electron shell is two electrons.
For any element with more than two electrons, the extra electrons will
reside in additional electron shells.
Bohr's postulates have quantum character, but the stationary
electronic orbits and allowed levels of energy of atom are
determined by methods of a classical mechanics and
electrodynamics.