-
Period: to
Lifespan of Niels Bohr
Danish Physicist -
Bohr Model of Atom
Niels Bohr applied Max Planck’s quantum theory to the Rutherford model of an atom to come up with his model of the atom. (Bohr, 2) This was a revolutionary philosophical concept that would become the standard model at that time and would later earn him a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922. (Nobelprize.org) -
Copenhagen Interpretation
Niels Bohr blended the wave equation of Schrödinger and the uncertainty principle of Heisenberg. He derived that systems at atomic level don’t have definite properties prior to being measured. The act of measurement affects the system and causes it to select one of the various possible values after measurement. This came to be known as the Copenhagen Interpretation and was a philosophical idea that helped shape modern Quantum Mechanics. (Baker) -
Complementarity Principle
Niels Bohr observes electrons acting as both a particle and a wave during experimentation. This led him to formulating the principle of complementarity, which states that on the atomic level a physical phenomenon expresses itself differently depending on the experimental setup used to observe it. (Brown, 619) Simply put, you could get different results using a different setup to observe phenomenon and that both observations though different are required to comprehend the phenomenon. -
Complementarity Principle Video
-
Liquid Drip Model
Bohr in collaboration with John Archibald Wheeler developed the liquid drop model in nuclear physics to explain the mechanism of fission. The model represented the structure of nucleus like a liquid drop of incomprehensible liquid. Like a drop could be deformed from its basic spherical shape to form two new drops, a large atomic nucleus, like uranium, could fall apart to form two new atomic nuclei. (Crepeau, 114)
