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Niels Bohr and the Quantum Atom: The Bohr Model of Atomic Structure 1913-1925
Niels Bohr and the Quantum Atom is the first book that focuses in detail on the birth and development of Bohr's atomic theory and gives a comprehensive picture of it. At the same time it offers new insight into Bohr's peculiar way of thinking, what Einstein once called his 'unique instinct and tact'. Contrary to most other accounts of the Bohr atom, the book presents it in a broader perspective which includes the reception among other scientists and the criticism launched against it by scientists of a more conservative inclination. Moreover, it discusses the theory as Bohr originally conceived it, namely, as an ambitious theory covering the structure of atoms as well as molecules. By discussing the theory in its entirety it becomes possible to understand why it developed as it did and thereby to use it as an example of the dynamics of scientific theories.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published March 23, 2012
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94 people want to read
About the author
Helge Kragh
61 books39 followersHelge Stjernholm Kragh is a Danish historian of science.
Kragh studied mathematics and physics at the University of Copenhagen before obtaining his PhD in 1981 at the University of Roskilde. He is a professor at the Centre for Science Studies of Aarhus University.
Kragh's areas of study are the history of physics from the mid-19th century onward, the history of astronomy, the history of cosmology and the history of chemistry.
Kragh studied mathematics and physics at the University of Copenhagen before obtaining his PhD in 1981 at the University of Roskilde. He is a professor at the Centre for Science Studies of Aarhus University.
Kragh's areas of study are the history of physics from the mid-19th century onward, the history of astronomy, the history of cosmology and the history of chemistry.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 25, 2016
Jessica Q. Rabbit, singer, model, TV star and high-flying academic, talks candidly to The Toon Town Times about Season 5 of Physics
TTT: Jessica, thank you making time in your busy schedule, and let me just start by saying that for the fifth time you've blown us all away. After Season 4 I was thinking this is it, no way can she top that, and then you did it again.
JR: Hey thanks! But like I always say, it's not me, it's the character. I was just born to play Physics.
TTT: Well, then we're lucky the two of you got together. But enough of that. I've got a bunch of questions here I'm dying to ask you.
JR: Shoot.
TTT: Okay Jessica, so at the end of Season 4 you left Ike and got together with Al. We were all sure Season 5 would be about how that relationship developed. Instead you've gone off with Niels. What's Physics thinking? Has she dumped Al already? I know I'm not the only fan who was a bit confused.
JR: Yeah, I know what you mean, so let me tell you how I see it. Here's Physics, she's been married to Ike for like two hundred years and then from one day to the next they're not together any more. She's going a bit crazy, you know? I mean, she's sitting at home and she gets a letter addressed to Mrs Einstein and for a second she thinks, who's that? My name's Newton.
TTT: Great scene.
JR: Thank you. So yeah, she loves Al. I mean she really loves him, you know? She wouldn't have left Ike otherwise.
TTT: You're saying it's not just physical?
JR: Well of course it's just physical! She's Physics, right, what else would it be? That's not what I mean. Like, Al's all, you know, classical and macrocosmic. But she's got a microcosmic side too and he can't satisfy her there.
TTT: He tries.
JR: Yeah, yeah, sure, he tries. He gives it his best shot, he discovers the photoelectric effect and everything. She can see that and it's breaking her heart, but it's not enough. She's got to have more.
TTT: So she starts playing around with the quantum boys?
JR: She can't keep away from them. First Max and then Ernie.
TTT: And after that, Niels?
JR: Look, she has to. Al's just sitting there night after night figuring out general relativity. Sometimes she wonders if he even remembers she's got atomic structure. She knows it's unfair, but that's how she feels.
TTT: So Niels comes along and she falls for him?
JR: Big-time. He's exactly what she's been looking for, he can't stop thinking about her electrons. So they start seeing each other.
TTT: But the whole time, she's also living with Al?
JR: Well, what's she going to do? She knows Niels isn't half the scientist Al is but she needs both of them.
TTT: She's a bit of a slut in other words?
JR: That is so what she isn't! She's a normal intellectual discipline with healthy appetites! I'd kind of hoped you'd see that.
TTT: I'm sorry Jessica.
JR: You should be! But yeah, in a way you're right too. Like, she knows it's wrong. Al's so objective and rigorous and mathematical and Niels is the exact opposite, it's all intuition and feeling. It makes her feel sick sometimes to think what she's got herself into. I mean, he explains a few results about the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum and then relaxes and thinks he's understood her. She's waving the helium atom in his face and flaunting the anomalous Zeeman effect and it's like he can't even see them.
TTT: Pauli does though.
JR: Oh, I think that was my favorite scene in the whole series. Wolfie says he can't be happy when he's thinking about the anomalous Zeeman effect and I'm like yes!
TTT: Are you guys getting together in Season 6?
JR: Sorry, no spoilers. And then he disses Niels's atomic diagrams.
TTT: That was pretty funny. You know, I liked the comic bits too. The fight over who discovered hafnium, with the crazy French dude and his fake spectrogram. Poor old Dauvillier trying to prove he got there first when all he's got is an overactive imagination.
JR: But at the same time it's tragic too. Niels has won the Nobel Prize and everyone thinks he's a genius and we're so happy together when really we're fighting every night. They believe he has these great mathematical arguments he hasn't got round to publishing yet but there's no there there. He can't explain multi-electron atoms, he can't explain covalent bonds and the shell diagrams are just pretty pictures.
TTT: And then Werner publishes his Umdeutung paper and it's all over.
JR: I know some people said it didn't make sense, things don't work that way, but it's what happened. And if you want to know more about the story, read Helge's book.
TTT: Niels Bohr and the Quantum Atom?
JR: That's the one. You know, I wasn't sure I wanted to make Season 5, I was in discussions with the studio, and they courriered it over. I stayed up all night reading it, I laughed, I cried, I scribbled equations, and at 7.30 a.m. I called Alejandro and I said, I'm ready to sign. I've got to do this.
TTT: That's really true?
JR: That's how it happened.
TTT: Wow. Jessica, I think that's everything I was going to ask you. Except, how do you manage to make Physics so amazing?
JR: How do people manage to think she's anything else?
TTT: I guess I asked for that. Well, Jessica, thank you again. It's been fantastic meeting you.
JR: The pleasure was all mine.
TTT: Jessica, thank you making time in your busy schedule, and let me just start by saying that for the fifth time you've blown us all away. After Season 4 I was thinking this is it, no way can she top that, and then you did it again.
JR: Hey thanks! But like I always say, it's not me, it's the character. I was just born to play Physics.
TTT: Well, then we're lucky the two of you got together. But enough of that. I've got a bunch of questions here I'm dying to ask you.
JR: Shoot.
TTT: Okay Jessica, so at the end of Season 4 you left Ike and got together with Al. We were all sure Season 5 would be about how that relationship developed. Instead you've gone off with Niels. What's Physics thinking? Has she dumped Al already? I know I'm not the only fan who was a bit confused.
JR: Yeah, I know what you mean, so let me tell you how I see it. Here's Physics, she's been married to Ike for like two hundred years and then from one day to the next they're not together any more. She's going a bit crazy, you know? I mean, she's sitting at home and she gets a letter addressed to Mrs Einstein and for a second she thinks, who's that? My name's Newton.
TTT: Great scene.
JR: Thank you. So yeah, she loves Al. I mean she really loves him, you know? She wouldn't have left Ike otherwise.
TTT: You're saying it's not just physical?
JR: Well of course it's just physical! She's Physics, right, what else would it be? That's not what I mean. Like, Al's all, you know, classical and macrocosmic. But she's got a microcosmic side too and he can't satisfy her there.
TTT: He tries.
JR: Yeah, yeah, sure, he tries. He gives it his best shot, he discovers the photoelectric effect and everything. She can see that and it's breaking her heart, but it's not enough. She's got to have more.
TTT: So she starts playing around with the quantum boys?
JR: She can't keep away from them. First Max and then Ernie.
TTT: And after that, Niels?
JR: Look, she has to. Al's just sitting there night after night figuring out general relativity. Sometimes she wonders if he even remembers she's got atomic structure. She knows it's unfair, but that's how she feels.
TTT: So Niels comes along and she falls for him?
JR: Big-time. He's exactly what she's been looking for, he can't stop thinking about her electrons. So they start seeing each other.
TTT: But the whole time, she's also living with Al?
JR: Well, what's she going to do? She knows Niels isn't half the scientist Al is but she needs both of them.
TTT: She's a bit of a slut in other words?
JR: That is so what she isn't! She's a normal intellectual discipline with healthy appetites! I'd kind of hoped you'd see that.
TTT: I'm sorry Jessica.
JR: You should be! But yeah, in a way you're right too. Like, she knows it's wrong. Al's so objective and rigorous and mathematical and Niels is the exact opposite, it's all intuition and feeling. It makes her feel sick sometimes to think what she's got herself into. I mean, he explains a few results about the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum and then relaxes and thinks he's understood her. She's waving the helium atom in his face and flaunting the anomalous Zeeman effect and it's like he can't even see them.
TTT: Pauli does though.
JR: Oh, I think that was my favorite scene in the whole series. Wolfie says he can't be happy when he's thinking about the anomalous Zeeman effect and I'm like yes!
TTT: Are you guys getting together in Season 6?
JR: Sorry, no spoilers. And then he disses Niels's atomic diagrams.
TTT: That was pretty funny. You know, I liked the comic bits too. The fight over who discovered hafnium, with the crazy French dude and his fake spectrogram. Poor old Dauvillier trying to prove he got there first when all he's got is an overactive imagination.
JR: But at the same time it's tragic too. Niels has won the Nobel Prize and everyone thinks he's a genius and we're so happy together when really we're fighting every night. They believe he has these great mathematical arguments he hasn't got round to publishing yet but there's no there there. He can't explain multi-electron atoms, he can't explain covalent bonds and the shell diagrams are just pretty pictures.
TTT: And then Werner publishes his Umdeutung paper and it's all over.
JR: I know some people said it didn't make sense, things don't work that way, but it's what happened. And if you want to know more about the story, read Helge's book.
TTT: Niels Bohr and the Quantum Atom?
JR: That's the one. You know, I wasn't sure I wanted to make Season 5, I was in discussions with the studio, and they courriered it over. I stayed up all night reading it, I laughed, I cried, I scribbled equations, and at 7.30 a.m. I called Alejandro and I said, I'm ready to sign. I've got to do this.
TTT: That's really true?
JR: That's how it happened.
TTT: Wow. Jessica, I think that's everything I was going to ask you. Except, how do you manage to make Physics so amazing?
JR: How do people manage to think she's anything else?
TTT: I guess I asked for that. Well, Jessica, thank you again. It's been fantastic meeting you.
JR: The pleasure was all mine.
March 5, 2013
This is a bit of specialist one. If you don’t have a physics degree, don’t bother to read any further. Neils Bohr and the Quantum Atom is not intended to be popular science, but I was very interested to read it as it’s a subject that is close to my heart.
Bohr himself tends to be underrated – he tended to come across rather badly when public speaking, and some of his quasi-philosophical pronouncements on the nature of quantum physics were painfully obscure. But we must not forget the huge contribution he made to kick-starting quantum theory, starting with his key development of the quantum model of the atom.
Although the book does plunge into equations on a number of occasions it is primarily a historical narrative of the development of Bohr’s model of the atom, including a fair amount of biography, from his early thoughts at Manchester in 1912 to its full fruition and subsequent transformation by the new quantum mechanics in the 1920s. I would be lying if I said that reading it wasn’t quite hard work – but if you really want to get a feel for the detailed process of the development of one of the key foundations of twentieth century physics, the book is unparalleled. There is a lot of detail – but this is about real science, not the sanitised version.
Overall, if you are the right reader (and I was), very satisfying.
Review first published on www.popularscience.co.uk and reproduced with permission
Bohr himself tends to be underrated – he tended to come across rather badly when public speaking, and some of his quasi-philosophical pronouncements on the nature of quantum physics were painfully obscure. But we must not forget the huge contribution he made to kick-starting quantum theory, starting with his key development of the quantum model of the atom.
Although the book does plunge into equations on a number of occasions it is primarily a historical narrative of the development of Bohr’s model of the atom, including a fair amount of biography, from his early thoughts at Manchester in 1912 to its full fruition and subsequent transformation by the new quantum mechanics in the 1920s. I would be lying if I said that reading it wasn’t quite hard work – but if you really want to get a feel for the detailed process of the development of one of the key foundations of twentieth century physics, the book is unparalleled. There is a lot of detail – but this is about real science, not the sanitised version.
Overall, if you are the right reader (and I was), very satisfying.
Review first published on www.popularscience.co.uk and reproduced with permission
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews