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Niels Bohr completely transformed our view of the atom and of the world.
Realizing that classical physics fails catastrophically when things are atom-sized or smaller, he remodeled the atom so electrons occupied ‘allowed’ orbits around the nucleus while all other orbits were forbidden. In doing so he founded quantum mechanics.
"Niels Bohr." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 19 Dec. 2015. Web. 1/19/2021 -
Birth
Niels Henrik David Bohr was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. His father was Christian Bohr, a brilliant physiology professor who would later be nominated twice for a Nobel Prize. His mother was Ellen Adler, daughter of a wealthy Danish politician.
"Niels Bohr." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 19 Dec. 2015. Web. 1/19/2021 -
Meeting Ernest Rutherford
At the end of 1911, Bohr met another great physicist who would both inspire him and become one of his greatest friends. In March 1912, he caught a train to work with Ernest Rutherford at his laboratory at the University of Manchester. -
Bohr Pushes our Understanding of the Atom
Bohr combined mathematics with his powerful physical intuition to establish that electrons orbit the nucleus in defined paths. The Rutherford-Bohr model of the atom is still taught in high schools.
"Niels Bohr." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 19 Dec. 2015. Web. 1/19/2021 -
Niels Bohr Institute Opened
In April 1917 Bohr began a campaign to establish an Institute of Theoretical Physics. He gained the support of the Danish government and the Carlsberg Foundation, and sizeable contributions were also made by industry and private donors. Bohr's institute opened in 1921 and it served as a focal point for researchers into quantum mechanics and related subjects in the 1920s and 1930s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Bohr -
Nobel Prize
In 1922, Bohr was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the work he did in 1913. He took Balmer’s formula, which was a mathematical formula that was stumbled upon by Johann Balmer in 1885 that predicted the wavelengths, and hence colors, of light emitted by hot hydrogen, and the new quantum theory to show why it worked. In doing so, he became the father of quantum mechanics – the physics of atom-scale objects.
"Niels Bohr." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 19 Dec. 2015. Web. 1/19/2021 -
Death
Niels Bohr died aged 77 of sudden heart failure in his home in Copenhagen on November 18, 1962. His ashes were buried in Copenhagen’s Assistens Cemetery near the graves of his parents and his brother Harald. Margrethe’s ashes were also buried there when she died.
"Niels Bohr." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 19 Dec. 2015. Web. 1/19/2021 -
Battle Over Quantum Mechanics Albert Einstein Vs Neils Bohr
https://youtu.be/SBgC0PyIomU
This video describes what influenced Niels Bohr as a young physicist, and his relentless efforts later in his career to disprove Albert Einstein's view and goal of Physics. Einstein could not stand the idea of Bohr's quantum physics because he believed there ought to be a set of equations, deterministic and causal, formulated in a way that could tell us about a future in terms of the present. Einstein believed quantum mechanics wouldn't allow that.
