How did Schrodinger's model improve Bohr's model?

  • Context: Graduate 
  • Thread starter Thread starter mahrap
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Model
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
2 replies · 14K views
mahrap
Messages
37
Reaction score
0
Can anyone think of two distinct ways which the Schrödinger model of the atom improves upon the Bohr model of the Atom? I think the two reasons are that quantization emerges naturally from Schrödinger's equation by boundary confinements while Bohr just assumed quanitization. The other improvement is the replacement of the circular orbits with orbitals which give a probability of finding an electron. The only problem I see with my first reason is that it is not directly related to the Schrödinger model; rather it is because of his equation.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
The most important difference is that the Schrödinger model is a much more general theory. It's a quantum mechanics that can be used to explain new problems (barrier penetration, analytical solutions to other 1-dimensional problems, band gaps in semi-conductors, etc.) in the process of explaining the special case that was the hydrogen atom and its spectrum. It's significantly less ad hoc than the earlier Bohr model of the atom.

A better theory usually leads to more ability to explain problems far from the problem from which the theory was developed. This is certainly one of those cases. Simply put, we gain a much better understanding of the natural world under the Schrödinger model than we do under the Bohr model.