
Hagen found that as the atom’s orbital angular momentum increased, the allowed energies of the predicted atom approached and gradually equalled the analytically found hydrogen energies. The technique involves making an educated guess of the hydrogen’s wavefunction and then optimizing that guess. Varying homeworkīut instead of solving the Bohr-model problem, Hagen applied the “variational principle” – a technique usually reserved for approximating quantum-mechanical systems that cannot be solved analytically with the Schrödinger equation. It is especially so when teaching physics, because it is one of the few systems that can be solved analytically by Schrödinger’s equation – that is, it can be solved exactly, rather than making approximations or using a computer program. The Bohr model, while not an accurate description of an atom, is often close enough to the real thing in many situations. It posed a twist on the Bohr model of hydrogen, which approximates the atom as an electron orbiting a point-like positive nucleus in circles. University of Rochester physicist Carl Hagen was designing homework problems for his graduate quantum-mechanics class when a particular exercise for the hydrogen atom intrigued him.
Hydrogen bohr model series#
Derived by English mathematician John Wallis in 1655, the original formula calculates pi as the product of an infinite series of ratios – it has now emerged from a solution of physicist Niels Bohr’s early 20th-century hydrogen-atom model, which most budding physicists learn. Webinars Tune into online presentations that allow expert speakers to explain novel tools and applicationsĪ nearly 400 year-old formula for pi has been spotted in a quantum-mechanics formula for the energy states of the hydrogen atom, according to researchers in the US.Video Watch our specially filmed videos to get a different slant on the latest science.Podcasts Our regular conversations with inspiring figures from the scientific community.
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