Q.State Bohr's three postulates for the hydrogen atom, explaining what each one assumes that goes beyond classical electromagnetic theory.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Postulate 1 (stationary orbits). An electron can revolve only in certain special orbits, called stationary orbits, in which -- contrary to classical EM theory -- it does NOT radiate energy. In such an orbit, Coulomb attraction supplies the centripetal force: . This postulate is what suspends classical radiation and gives the atom stability, resolving Rutherford's first limitation.
Postulate 2 (quantisation of angular momentum). Only orbits for which the electron's angular momentum is an integral multiple of are allowed: , (the principal quantum number). This restricts the continuous range of classically possible orbits to a discrete, countable set. …
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