Atomic structure
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Why for example with a hydrogen atom, doesn't the electron get sucked in to the positive nucleus rather than keep orbiting?
Peter replies
That’s a very good question. Early in the 20th century it bothered many of the finest minds in physics. Niels Bohr and others realised that a charged particle in orbit should give off radio waves and so lose energy and fall into the proton. But electrons don’t. Bohr stopped picturing the hydrogen atom as a mini solar system, with the electron orbiting.
With a lot of hard thinking, over several decades, people like Planck, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrodinger and others developed what is called quantum theory. This gives a complete mathematical description of what’s happening but gives up on visualising particles inside the atom. Not only did this theory account for known facts without producing false puzzles, it led to fundamentally new insights that underlie now familiar technologies such as computers and digital cameras.
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updated: 19 December 2003
