'It is wrong to think that the task of the physics is to find out what nature is.
physics concerns what we can say about nature'
Niels Bohr
Bohr was first to apply the quantum theory,which restricts the energy of a system to a certain discrete value,to the problem of atomic and molecular structures. for this work he received the novel price in 1922. he developed the so called bohr theory of the atom and the liquid drop model of the atomic nucleus.
THE KIDNAPPER
The university of Gottingen in Germany was hosting a big dinner in the honour of a Danish nobel price winning physicist. Suddenly the dinner was unceremoniously interrupted by two uniformed German policemen. they accousted the great scientist and on of them announced"You are under arrest on the charge of dnapping!".
The guest of the honour as well as the rest of the gathering were utterly shocked at this appalling charge. everyone was left struggling for the words and the air was tense.when the snigger broke the silence. one of the two policemen were grinning from ear to ear and soon the other too started to laugh mirthfully. in other moment the cat was out of the bag. the policemen were mischievous graduate students.
Just a day before the big diner, the scientist has visited a Germen graduate student, who even at a very young age made a great advances in the field of the quantum mechanics.the guest scientist has invited the young man to come to Copenhagen to work with him.it was the scientist's attempt to virtually 'kidnap' this student that had promoted some other students to stage this drama.
the scientist did not go to the jail, but the German student did accompany him to the Copenhagen where the former had founded the Institute of Theoretical Physics. this prodigious German student was no the than WERNER HEISENBERG. while the guest of the dinner was famous physist NEILS BOHR.
Bohr has seen a streak of genius in the young student and he groomed him under his tutelage and the scientific world was rewarded by a path-breaking theory, the Heisenberg uncertainty principl that till today forms the fundamental basis of quantum mechanics.
EINSTEIN greatly admired Bohr's early work, referring to it as "the higher form of musicality in the sphere of thoughts" but he never accepted the Bohr's claim that quantum mechanics as the "rational generalisation of the classical physics" required for the understanding of the atomic phenomena. Einstein and Bohr discussed quantum mechanics on a number of occasions. but they never came to a basic agreement. however , Bohr himself accepted that Einstein's challenging objections had proved to be of vital importance in the evaluation of his own ideas.
physics concerns what we can say about nature'Niels Bohr
Bohr was first to apply the quantum theory,which restricts the energy of a system to a certain discrete value,to the problem of atomic and molecular structures. for this work he received the novel price in 1922. he developed the so called bohr theory of the atom and the liquid drop model of the atomic nucleus.
THE KIDNAPPER
The university of Gottingen in Germany was hosting a big dinner in the honour of a Danish nobel price winning physicist. Suddenly the dinner was unceremoniously interrupted by two uniformed German policemen. they accousted the great scientist and on of them announced"You are under arrest on the charge of dnapping!".
The guest of the honour as well as the rest of the gathering were utterly shocked at this appalling charge. everyone was left struggling for the words and the air was tense.when the snigger broke the silence. one of the two policemen were grinning from ear to ear and soon the other too started to laugh mirthfully. in other moment the cat was out of the bag. the policemen were mischievous graduate students.
Just a day before the big diner, the scientist has visited a Germen graduate student, who even at a very young age made a great advances in the field of the quantum mechanics.the guest scientist has invited the young man to come to Copenhagen to work with him.it was the scientist's attempt to virtually 'kidnap' this student that had promoted some other students to stage this drama.
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| Linus Pauling and Neils Bohr |
EARLY LIFE
Neils Bohr was born on October 7,1885 in Copenhagen,Denmark.his father Christian Bohr, was a professor of physiologist the University of Copenhagen. his mother , Ellen Alder Bohr, came from a wealthy jewish family.
Bohr's scientific interest and abilities were evidence earlier. he distinguished himself at the university of Copenhagen and won a royal medal at the royal danish academy of sciences for his theoretical analysis and practical experiments on the vibrations of waterjets as away of determining surface tension. in 1911 he received his doctorate for hid thesis on the electron theory of metals. e then went to england, tending to to continue his work with Sir J.J Thomson. however Thomson failed to show interest in Bohr's idea of electron in the metals.although he has worked n this subject years ago. quite undettered Bohrs returned to the in the march 1912 and joined Ernst Rutherford group studying the structure of the atom.
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NEW ATOMIC MODEL
In Manchester Bohr worked on the nuclear model of the atom. Bohr was among the first to see the importance of the atomic number, which indicates the position of the element in the periodic table and is equal to the number of natural units of electric charge present in the nuclei of the atom.
Bohr recognised that the various chemical and physical properties of the depend on the electron moving around the nuclei of their atom and that the small but the massive nucleus only determined the atomic weight and the possible radioactive behavior.
A few years ago Bohrs has presented the planetary model of the of an atom in which he postulated that electrons move around the nucleus just same as the the planets moving around the sun. however this model of the atom was quite unstable. according to the rules of physics the moving electron should radiate energy thus causing them to slow down and at the end they have to collapse in to the nucleus. as this does not happen in reality, Rutherford model proved to be flawed.
Bohr imposed th stability of the atomic model by the new ideas of quantum theory. with plank's quantum theory as the basis, Bohr postulated that in certain in certain orbits the electron are stable and neither lose nor they gain energy as they orbit the nucleus. energy is lost or gained only if electrons jump or de-exite. this description of the atomic structure came to be known as the Bohrs atomic model.
Bohr's quantum theory of of the atom also explained the series of lines explained.the series of the lines observed in the spectrum of light emitted by the by the hydrogen atom. he concluded that the lines in the hydrogen spectrum are caused by the when the electron jumped between the the higher and lower energy level in the atom. Bohr also determined the frequency of the f the radiation so emitted would be equal to the difference between the energy of the two states divide by the plank's constant. this meant that atom can neither absorb nor emit the energy continuously can but can do so only in the finite steps or quantum jumps. Bohr returned to Copenhagen from Manchester during the summer of 1912, married Margrette Norlund, and continued to develop the theory of the atom. the work was completed in the 1913 and the world got its new atomic model. later Bohrs theory was confirmed by spectroscope and other experiments.
WORK CONTINUED ON QUANTUM THEORY
IN 1916 Bohr was appointed to the professorship in his native city. the university created a new institute of theoretical physics for Bohr, which opened its doors in 1921. he served as its director for rest of his life. though the early 1920s Bohr tried ti develop a a consistent quantum theory that would explain all the aspect of the atomic model and at the same time he also tried to explain the structure and the properties of the atoms of all the chemical elements.
Bohrs Institute at Copenhagen soon became an international center for work on atomic physics and quantum theory. even during the early years of its existence the institute boasted of a number of great minds from many lands including H.A.Kramers from Neitherlands, George Charles Von Hevesy from Hungary, Oskar Klien from Sweden , Werner Heisenberg from Germany. Nad John slater from United States.. some of them like Heisenberg were personally picked by him.
in 1922 Bohr was awarded by noble price in physics for his work on atomic physics and quantum theory. Bohr's eminence grew and he travelled worldwide lecturing in many countries. during the next some years Bohr held intense discussions with the scientist across the world.-- discussions that dealt with the issue of linking the mathematical mathematical issue of quantum mechanics with procedures and the results of the experimental physics.
EINSTEIN greatly admired Bohr's early work, referring to it as "the higher form of musicality in the sphere of thoughts" but he never accepted the Bohr's claim that quantum mechanics as the "rational generalisation of the classical physics" required for the understanding of the atomic phenomena. Einstein and Bohr discussed quantum mechanics on a number of occasions. but they never came to a basic agreement. however , Bohr himself accepted that Einstein's challenging objections had proved to be of vital importance in the evaluation of his own ideas.
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