Bohr, Niels Henrik David

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Danish physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922 for his discovery of the structure of atoms and the radiation emanating from them. He pioneered quantum theory by showing that the nuclei of atoms are surrounded by shells of electrons, each assigned particular sets of quantum numbers according to their orbits. He explained the structure and behaviour of the nucleus, as well as the process of nuclear fission. Bohr also proposed the doctrine of complementarity, the theory that a fundamental particle is neither a wave nor a particle, because these are complementary modes of description.

Quantum theory and atomic structure
Bohr's first model of the atom was developed working in Manchester, England, with Ernest Rutherford, who had proposed a nuclear theory of atomic structure from his work on the scattering of alpha rays in 1911. It was not, however, understood how electrons could continually orbit the nucleus without radiating energy, as classical physics demanded. In 1913, Bohr developed his theory of atomic structure by applying quantum theory to the observations of radiation emitted by atoms. Ten years earlier, Max Planck had proposed that radiation is emitted or absorbed by atoms in discrete units, or quanta, of energy. Bohr postulated that an atom may exist in only a certain number of stable states, each with a certain amount of energy, in which electrons orbit the nucleus without emitting or absorbing energy. He proposed that emission or absorption of energy occurs only with a transition from one stable state to another. When a transition occurs, an electron moving to a higher orbit absorbs energy and an electron moving to a lower orbit emits energy. In so doing, a set number of quanta of energy are emitted or absorbed at a particular frequency.

The liquid-droplet model
In 1939, Bohr proposed his liquid-droplet model for the nucleus, in which nuclear particles are pulled together by short-range forces, similar to the way in which molecules in a drop of liquid are attracted to one another. In the case of uranium, the extra energy produced by the absorption of a neutron causes the nuclear particles to separate into two groups of approximately the same size, thus breaking the nucleus into two smaller nuclei – a process called nuclear fission. The model was vindicated when Bohr correctly predicted the differing behaviour of nuclei of uranium-235 and uranium-238 from the fact that the numbers of neutrons in the two nuclei is odd and even respectively.

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