Understanding the Bohr Model and Electron Decay

[jamie.j1989]

Hi, I'm really struggling to comprehend how the Bohr model solves the problem of accelerating electrons losing energy and decaying into the nucleus. I've read through a lot of discussions on line and on PF and all I keep on reading is stuff like, the quantization of energy levels leads to a ground state of the energy and so this solves the problem of accelerating charged particles, how? Surely the electrons are still accelerating in the ground state or in any other state for that matter and so must be losing energy, how is this actually countered? Thanks.

 

[ZapperZ]

Did you read the FAQ on this topic here?

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/why-dont-electrons-crash-into-the-nucleus-in-atoms.511179/

BTW, just to correct your spelling, it is "Bohr", not "Bhor". You tend to want to make sure you spell the names of very famous people correctly.

Zz.

 

[jamie.j1989]

Thanks ZapperZ, so am I right in saying that when Bohr put forward this model it was in no way an attempt to explain why electrons don't crash into the nucleus but rather just an attempt at explaining emission spectra? Also this now leads me to ask, if we're now dealing with the electron being some sort of cloud distributed across a volume and the van der Waals force is explained by density distortions in this cloud, wouldn't these distortions emit EM waves and so reduce the electrons energy?

 

[ZapperZ]

Thanks ZapperZ, so am I right in saying that when Bohr put forward this model it was in no way an attempt to explain why electrons don't crash into the nucleus but rather just an attempt at explaining emission spectra? Also this now leads me to ask, if we're now dealing with the electron being some sort of cloud distributed across a volume and the van der Waals force is explained by density distortions in this cloud, wouldn't these distortions emit EM waves and so reduce the electrons energy?

Only if a transition to a lower energy state is allowed and available!

You can't just simply ask question like this without dealing with a specific scenario. Your question doesn't indicate if the system is already in a ground state, what are the Hamiltonian of the system in question, etc. ... etc. In other words, your vague question will only allow me to give you a vague answer. And I did.

Zz.