There was an issue to classical physics. It turns out that there is discrete energy bands to the orbital electrons in atoms. This means that the energy between the nearest electron to the atom's nucleus and the next nearest electron is a distinguishable step, rather than a continuum. Electrons can only exist at these specific levels.
The first few explanations for why this was, were pretty much just guesses. The person to finally complete the code for hydrogen (which is a good model of energy levels), was a physicist named de Broglie. He later went on to earn a nobel prize for the discovery. It turns out that the electrons orbit around the nucleus in a sin wave. This sine wave must be continuous. The levels were then determined to be described in terms of n. n being how many completed sine waves it takes to rejoin at it's initial position.
Subreddit
Post Details
- Posted
- 8 years ago
- Reddit URL
- View post on reddit.com
- External URL
- reddit.com/r/essaymains/...