Chapter 29
Atomic Physics
By Boundless
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Modern scientific usage denotes the atom as composed of constituent particles: the electron, the proton and the neutron.
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Dalton believed that that matter is composed of discrete units called atoms -- indivisible, ultimate particles of matter.
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Thomson proposed that the atom is composed of electrons surrounded by a soup of positive charge to balance the electrons' negative charges.
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Rutherford confirmed that the atom had a concentrated center of positive charge and relatively large mass.
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Bohr suggested that electrons in hydrogen could have certain classical motions only when restricted by a quantum rule.
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Bohr explained hydrogen's spectrum successfully by adopting a quantization condition and by introducing the Planck constant in his model.
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According to Bohr, electrons can only orbit stably, in certain orbits, at a certain discrete set of distances from the nucleus.
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Based on his assumptions, Bohr derived several important properties of the hydrogen atom from the classical physics.
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The observed hydrogen-spectrum wavelengths can be calculated using the following formula:
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By assuming that the electron is described by a wave and a whole number of wavelengths must fit, we derive Bohr's quantization assumption.
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Compton explained the X-ray frequency shift during the X-ray/electron scattering by attributing particle-like momentum to "photons".
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X-ray shows its wave nature when radiated upon atomic/molecular structures and can be used to study them.
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The Compton Effect is the phenomenon of the decrease in energy of photon when scattered by a free charged particle.
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The wave nature of matter is responsible for the quantization of energy levels in bound systems.
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Pair production refers to the creation of an elementary particle and its antiparticle, usually when a photon interacts with a nucleus.
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Atoms with more than one electron are referred to as multielectron atoms.
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A periodic table is the arrangement of chemical elements according to their electron configurations and recurring chemical properties.
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The electron configuration is the distribution of electrons of an atom or molecule in atomic or molecular orbitals.