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Exercise · Q17

Q.Explain why Bohr's postulate of non-radiating stationary orbits, though it contradicts classical electromagnetic theory, was necessary to obtain a stable atom, and why the quantisation of angular momentum was needed to fix which orbits are allowed.

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Why postulate 1 was necessary. Classical electromagnetic theory demands that any accelerating (hence orbiting) charge radiate energy continuously, which would make the electron spiral into the nucleus in about 10−8 s10^{-8}\ \text{s} (Exercise 3) -- so SOME departure from classical theory was unavoidable if atoms are to be stable at all. Postulate 1 supplies exactly this departure, by declaring that electrons in certain special orbits simply do not radiate, however long they remain in them.

Why postulate 2 was also necessary. The force-balance condition alone, 14πϵ0Ze2r2=mv2r\frac{1}{4\pi\epsilon_0}\frac{Ze^2}{r^2}=\frac{mv^2}{r}, is satisfied for EVERY possible radius rr (for a suitably chosen speed vv) -- it does not, by itself, single out any particular orbit as special. Without a second condition, postulate 1 alone would still permit a continuous range of "non-radiating" orbits, which fails to explain why only certain fixed spectral lines are observed (Section 1.6). The angular-momentum quantisation condition, mvr=nh/2πmvr=nh/2\pi, supplies exactly this missing second …

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