Monday 14 September 2015

quantum chemistry - Usefulness of the outdated Bohr model?


Whilst the Bohr model is incomplete and incorrect, it had limited usage in predicting spectral lines. In the same way, could it possibly with limited accuracy, be used to predict the outcome of chemical interactions to within "an order of magnitude" for which it was so famously known to do for many physical phenomena?



Answer




I think the importance of Bohr model comes from the fact that it's the first atomic model that uses the hypothesis of quantization. More precisely Energy Quantization. It introduces the first quantum number $n$. It allows to interpret the atomic emission spectrum of hydrogen.


So, it is an interesting pedagogic tool to teach students how the atomic models had evolved to arrive to the modern atomic theory (based on quantum physics).


It's also a beautiful example to teach students how empirical science, like chemistry, evolved by making observation (emission spectrum of hydrogen), formulate hypotheses (atomic model based on the model of solar system but with electrostatic forces), testing the model (it works for interpreting the discrete emission spectrum), but it fails to interpret the behaviour of the atom under magnetic field (so, scientists thought about rejecting the model and used another one, the modern model of atoms).


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