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Bohr's Birth and Family
Bohr was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 7 October 1885, the 2nd of 3 children of Christian Bohr, a professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen, and Elle Bohr, who was the daughter of David Adler from the wealthy Danish Jewish Adler banking family. He had an elder sister, Jenny, and a younger brother Harald. Jenny became a teacher while Harald became a mathematician and a footballer who played for the Danish national team, they played many matches with Niels as the goalie. -
Early Beginnings Bohr and the Atomic Theory
Bohr, primarily interested in electromagnetism and atomic theory, was awarded a travel grant by the Carlsberg Foundation in 1911. He spent a year at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge for research. The director, J.J. Thomson, did not express interest in his ideas. Bohr caught the attention of another physicist, Ernest Rutherford, and traveled to Manchester in 1912 to participate in the construction of his nuclear model of the atom. There he began the work that would dominate his career. -
Bohr and the Atomic Theory
Bohr's theory, which was named atomic theory, proposed that electrons circle the nucleus following the classical laws but subject to limitations, such as the orbits they can occupy and the energy they lose as radiation when they jump from one orbit to another. But it also attempted to explain in a unified way all the quantum phenomena that had been observed to date. The theory rested on two fundamental pillars: the adiabatic principle, a method to find; & the correspondence principle. -
Major Works
Discovered the Bohr-Van Leeuwen Theorem 1911
Introduced the Bohr Model of the Atom 1913
Applied the Quantum Concept to the Atomic Model 1913
Formulated the Complementary Principle 1927
Founded the Compound-Nucleus Model 1936
Won two Nobel Peace Prizes as a result of his ground breaking achievements.
Books
-Bohr, Niels. Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge. Foreign Literature Press, 1961.
-Bohr, Niels, and Rud Nielsen. Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature. The University Press, 1961. -
Educational Video
Hank Green on Niels Bohr | #7DaysofGenius at 92Y Attached is a short video of renowned Crash Course host, Hank Green, briefly speaking on Niels Bohr and his a few of accomplishments.