Bohr's ideas about electron orbits helped explain the regularity of atomic spectra but did not explain why the electron should orbit the nucleus only at certain distance. How did De Broglie's ideas of the dual nature of matter help explain the quantized orbits of electrons in atoms?
2007-12-03 10:26:43 · 1 answers · asked by David T 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
When you cast the electrons as mass in motion and then convert that to energy, there is a wavelength associated with that energy (via the DeBroglie theories.) If you check for self-resonance, you realize that quantem orbits have only those sizes for which the waveforms reinforce themselves.
As a mental picture, think of gears. Now think of TWO gears, one of which is fixed in size and the other can vary. This means that for the one that can vary, the gaps between the teeth and the teeth have to come out even. You can have 50 teeth around the circle of the gear, or 51, or 49, ... but you cannot build a gear with 50.5 teeth.
Now translate that mental image to electron orbits. Superimpose a sine wave around the circumference of a circle. You cannot have orbits (circumferences) for which a non-integral number of sine wave periods is involved. THAT is the quantization concept. (Roughly speaking.)
2007-12-03 10:36:08 · answer #1 · answered by The_Doc_Man 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋