# Integers in Bohr's atomic theory

by Rothiemurchus
Tags: atomic, bohr, integers, theory
 Mentor P: 11,780 They are intended to be exact integers. Please note, however, that Bohr's model with electrons moving in classical circular orbits, and Sommerfeld's version with elliptical orbits, are incorrect and obsolete. They were supplanted by the quantum-mechanical model using the $\Psi$ function, developed by Schrödinger and others in the 1920s. You should consider the Bohr-Sommerfeld model as being of historical interest only. If you insist on burying yourself in the details of the Bohr-Sommerfeld model, you'd better be prepared to set them all aside when you start to study the Schrödinger model.
 Mentor P: 11,780 Integers in Bohr's atomic theory Bohr's original model (1915 or thereabouts) did not use waves for the electron. He simply postulated that the electron moves in a circular orbit whose orbital angular momentum mvr can have the values $nh / 2 \pi$, with n = 1, 2, 3, ... About ten years later, de Broglie came along with his idea of using a wave to represent an electron, as you describe, to explain Bohr's quantization condition. But he still thought in terms of circular or elliptical paths, whereas Schrödinger's wave function spreads out in three dimensions, and are more like standing waves of sound in a spherical cavity than waves going around a ring.
 Quote by jtbell They are intended to be exact integers. Please note, however, that Bohr's model with electrons moving in classical circular orbits, and Sommerfeld's version with elliptical orbits, are incorrect and obsolete. They were supplanted by the quantum-mechanical model using the $\Psi$ function, developed by Schrödinger and others in the 1920s. You should consider the Bohr-Sommerfeld model as being of historical interest only. .