Chapter 270 Flaws of the planetary model! Difficulties with Bohr's theory!
The evening of December 25, 1910, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Just when the physics community was going crazy because of the second Bruce Conference, Bohr had already returned to his hometown smoothly.
Living in a luxurious suburban manor of several thousand square meters, Bohr's parents prepared a sumptuous Christmas dinner.
Beautiful maids constantly shuttled between them, allowing Bohr to get everything without having to use his hands.
But Bohr was not very interested and just ate something casually, obviously with something on his mind.
Father Christian probably knew what his son was thinking, so he smiled and said: "Bohr, only when you have a full meal can you have the strength to think."
"As a professor of physiology, I have no understanding of the world. My research is not as good as yours; but my research on people is definitely deeper than yours.”
“No matter how great a physicist is, he cannot think of physical problems when he is hungry.”
After hearing this, Bohr smiled knowingly and said, "Thank you, father."
"I'm just a little stressed recently."
"It's okay, you don't have to worry about me."
Christine asked: "Oh? Did Professor Bruce give you some difficult problem? "
"Your King's College has been in the newspapers a lot recently"
"I even see your name often."
"Perhaps this troubles you?"
Bohr did not speak when he heard this, but ate quietly.
I was thinking about my study experience in the past year and a half.
Among Professor Bruce’s seven doctoral students, I am undoubtedly the one he values the most.
Even fellow Chinese fellow tutors such as Master Qian could not compare.
Not only did his mentor make him the note-taker of the first blues conference, but the trip to the United States also took him with him.
Both of these opportunities are opportunities that countless people dream of.
However, you can get it easily.
In the laboratory, everyone knew that he was Professor Bruce's personal disciple. Bohr often chaired any department meetings.
Everyone also takes this arrangement for granted.
Because Bohr was indeed the smartest student, his mind was very flexible and he could often come up with very advanced ideas.
Just like Sodi's explanation of the periodic table of elements.
Everyone in the department knows that Bohr has talked about related content before.
However, since his subject was atomic structure, he did not spend any energy on in-depth research.
Deplore a huge result.
But Bohr didn't care.
But with the rise of younger generations such as Qian Wushi and Little Bragg, Bohr felt a little pressure.
Although I am jokingly called "the smartest doctoral student", physics is about results.
No matter how smart you are, it’s useless if you don’t have a good paper.
As for ordinary papers like those in the "Nature" sub-journals, Bohr never considered it.
Even if you post 100 articles, it will be useless.
It’s like my mentor, Professor Bruce, who has only published less than ten academic papers in ten years.
But every article suppresses the entire physics community.
The papers in all the journals in the world combined may not be as valuable as those ten papers.
This is the realm Bohr pursued.
He has always regarded Professor Bruce as his idol and his ultimate goal.
If you want to wear a crown, you must bear its weight.
The pressure in Bohr's heart can be imagined.
However, he still smiled and said to Christine: "Father, I am 25 years old and can handle any matters of my own."
Christine patted her son's Shoulders, feeling very happy and proud.
His son must be doing something very, very difficult, otherwise with his intelligence, he would have solved it long ago.
Therefore, Christine was very grateful to Li Qiwei, who really put his effort into cultivating Bohr.
He decided to find a time to pay a special visit to thank Li Qiwei.
Bohr’s mother lovingly handed Bohr all kinds of his favorite foods.
Soon after Bohr finished eating, he went upstairs to his room, lying on the bed and thinking about his topic quietly.
Ridgway's doctoral topic for Bohr was the study of planetary models of atomic structures.
This is the most important research direction in the current physics community.
Atomic Research!
According to the prediction of the first Bruce Conference, modern physics will have atoms as its core.
The planetary model is the core of atomic research.
It can be seen from this that Li Qiwei's great love for Bohr was also the reason why Bohr was under great pressure.
The tutor leaves to himself the best and most cutting-edge topics in physics that are most likely to produce results.
But the instructor himself went to study the incredibly difficult general theory of relativity.
Bohr was extremely grateful.
Planet models are simple.
The nucleus is located in the center of the atom, and the electrons move in a circle around the nucleus.
By analogy to the solar system, the nucleus is the sun, and the electrons are planets like the earth.
But this model has two problems that cannot be explained, or two flaws.
First, the planetary model is unstable.
According to Maxwell's electromagnetic theory, when electrons move in a circle around the nucleus, they will release electromagnetic radiation (ie, radiation energy), causing the electrons to fall into the nucleus.
However, this phenomenon has not been observed in any current experiments.
This shows that the movement of electrons is stable, but the planetary model cannot explain it.
Second, Li Qiwei did not explain how electrons are arranged outside the nucleus in the planetary model.
Are electrons like the solar system, each electron occupies an orbit; or are they scattered randomly and randomly.
These are not explained by the planetary model and cannot be explained.
Of course, when Ridgway published his planetary model, Soddy's improved periodic table had not yet been published.
But until now, Soddy has not explained how the electrons are arranged.
As for the second question, Bohr had no clue at all.
But for the first question, Bohr already had an idea.
(In real history, Bohr solved the first problem first and the second problem ten years later.)
Bohr's thinking was complex.
The falling of electrons into the nucleus is an inevitable result of classical mechanics and classical electromagnetism.
As long as people believe that classical physics remains true at the atomic scale, the atomic structure must collapse.
The planetary model was proposed by Li Qiwei, who was Bohr's mentor.
Bohr had to make a choice between classical physics and his mentor.
Either classical physics is wrong, or my mentor is wrong.
But Bohr’s respect for Li Qiwei came from the bottom of his heart.
Unless absolutely necessary, he would never think that his mentor was wrong.
But classical physics cannot be easily denied.
Bohr thought again of Li Qiwei’s earnest teachings and what he had seen during his trip to the United States.
Classical physics is not obsolete! Should not be abandoned!
It still has too many secrets waiting to be discovered! Therefore, Bohr made a bold guess.
Classical physics and the instructor’s theory are both correct!
It’s just that a bridge is needed to connect the two.
The bridge is the quantum concept of mentor Bruce.
Bohr believed that classical physics was only on a microscopic scale, and some conclusions were not applicable.
But he still retained the concept of classical mechanics [orbit].
Bohr believed that in order to explain why atoms do not collapse, it is assumed that as long as electrons are in certain specific orbits, they will not release electromagnetic radiation.
He called these specific orbits the [stable state orbits] of electrons.
Bohr believed that the orbit of electrons outside the nucleus cannot move in any orbit like classical physics.
Electrons have their own stable orbits, which are discontinuous, which is the so-called quantization of electron orbits.
Give a vivid example.
The earth in the solar system moves around the sun. From the perspective of classical physics, the distance from the earth to the sun can be any value.
But according to Bohr's theory, the earth can only stay in its current orbit and cannot exist in other orbits.
This is a bit incredible.
This is Bohr's stable orbit hypothesis.
He absorbed the orbital concept of classical physics and the planetary model concept of mentor Bruce, and finally integrated them using quantum concepts.
In real history, this is why it is called old quantum theory.
Because Bohr respected his teachers too much, whether it was Rutherford or Li Qiwei.
So Bohr did not dare to be too bold and only took a half step. He retained the concept of orbit.
Later, quantum mechanics proved that the movement of electrons has nothing to do with the orbits of classical physics.
No matter how you say it, Bohr is a figure who connects the past and the future of quantum mechanics.
Without his old quantum theory, there would be no later quantum mechanics.
But this is the reason why Bohr is depressed now. His stable-state orbit hypothesis is unreasonable and unconvincing.
Others asked: Bohr, why do electrons have so-called stable orbits?
Bohr return: Because electrons do not radiate energy in these orbits.
Others ask again: Why don’t electrons radiate energy in these orbits?
Bohr returns again: Because the electron is in a stable orbit.
Others: ×&%￥#@.
This is an unsolvable circular argument, and Bohr also knew that it was unconvincing.
Of course, Bohr can also say coaxingly: Don't ask why, just accept it, believe it or not.
This is the case with later quantum mechanics. Don’t ask, even I don’t know.
But Bohr was not stupid enough to be so reckless. He is still little Karami, so he should be humble and low-key.
If it were Professor Bruce, he might be so bold.
Therefore, Bohr now urgently needs evidence that can explain why the electron's orbit is discontinuous and it has its own specific stable state orbit.
And, further, he also wanted to explain, what is the radius of the stable orbit, and what is the energy of the electron in the orbit. (These are concepts of classical physics.)
Bohr did not expect this evidence to be authoritative, even if it could be slightly relevant.
After all, when Professor Bruce published quantum theory, there was no evidence, but it could only explain the problem of black body radiation.
But now, he needs such a condition.
This is the problem that Bohr has been thinking about recently, and it is also the crux of his problem.
After much deliberation, Bohr still had no clue.
So he simply picked up a Bohr notebook and planned to empty his mind.
But obviously, he couldn't concentrate.
Just when Bohr was upset, there was a knock on the door of the bedroom.
He asked: "Who is it?"
A clear female voice replied: "Bohr, it's me."
Wow!
Bohr threw down his notes, got out of bed immediately, opened the door quickly, and said in surprise: "Margaret, why are you here?"
That's Margaret. Bohr's girlfriend, and the two are about to get engaged.
Her father and Bohr's father were good friends.
But he is not a professor, but an industrialist.
Margaret is tall, wearing a beautiful dress and makeup on her face. She is obviously carefully dressed.
And she has a gentle personality and is deeply liked by Bohr.
As Margaret was pulled into the room by Bohr, she smiled and said: "My father and I are here to visit my uncle and aunt today."
"Christine said you were upstairs, so I wanted to come over and see you."
"How are you doing in England?"
"There is nothing delicious there. ”
Bohr was instantly resurrected when he saw his girlfriend. He asked Margaret to sit on the bed, and then told her what he had experienced over the past year.
A few interesting things were mentioned during the period, which made Margaret chuckle.
But when Bohr talked about his research topic, he sighed again.
Margaret said: "Christine told me just now that you have been under a lot of pressure recently and asked me to enlighten you."
"Is it because of your tutor, Professor Bruce? ?”
“A great scientist like him shouldn’t embarrass you.”
Bohr smiled and said, “It’s too late for my mentor to love me. How could he embarrass me?”< br>
"It's my own problem."
Margaret knew that Bohr was studying physical problems and she couldn't help much, so she changed the subject and joked:
"My father still I’ve been thinking about it, want to see Professor Bruce?”
Bohr was stunned and said with a smile: “Oh? Why does uncle want to see my mentor?”
Margaret said. Recently, my factory encountered a process problem, which seems to be related to physics. ”
"My father found several people but couldn't solve it."
"He thinks that a great scientist like Professor Bruce can definitely do it."
Bohr laughed and said: "Haha, what do you want me to do? It’s not easy for a mentor to come forward.”
“You know, in addition to academics, his achievements in technology companies are not low at all.”
“I even doubt that he will become a mentor in the future. The richest man in the world.”
"Huh?" Margaret's shocked mouth formed an O-shape. Bohr's heart was burning and his mouth was dry.
However, he did not dare to act rashly. Both of them were pious people and had already made an agreement.
"That's awesome."
"Bohr, you will definitely be as good as Professor Bruce in the future."
Bohr smiled bitterly, "Hey, my tutor and I The gap is too big, I’m afraid I won’t be able to catch up in my lifetime.”
"I don't even have a clue about my thesis yet."
Margaret felt very distressed when she saw her future husband being so stressed.
So, after a few seconds of ideological struggle, she decided to comfort the other person.
"Bohr, how about I help you relieve the pressure."
"You are hurting your body very much."
Bohr was slightly stunned, "How do you want to relieve it?"
Margaret smiled affectionately, leaned Bohr on the bed, and then slowly backed away.
Bohr's heart suddenly trembled, as if he had been electrocuted.
There is only one thought in his mind: Fuck physics!
(End of this chapter)