ATOMIC STRUCTURE QUESTIONS

(Assignment 4)
Sumit Kumar Bera
CSE 1B / Roll 101

1. Write down postulates of Rutherford’s model.

Ans: - 1) An atom is composed of positively charged particles. Majority of the

mass of an atom was concentrated in a very small region. This region of the
atom was called as the nucleus of an atom. It was found out later that the
very small and dense nucleus of an atom is composed of neutrons and
protons.

2) Atoms nucleus is surrounded by negatively charged particles called electrons.

The electrons revolve around the nucleus in a fixed circular path at very high speed.
These fixed circular paths were termed as “orbits.”

3) An atom has no net charge or they are electrically neutral because electrons are
negatively charged and the densely concentrated nucleus is positively charged. A
strong electrostatic force of attractions holds together the nucleus and electrons.

4) The size of the nucleus of an atom is very small in comparison to the total size of
an atom.
2. What are the drawbacks of Rutherford’s model.

Ans: - 1) Rutherford’s model was unable to explain the stability of an atom.

According to Rutherford’s postulate, electrons revolve at a very high speed around a
nucleus of an atom in a fixed orbit. However, Maxwell explained accelerated charged
particles release electromagnetic radiation. Therefore, electrons revolving around
the nucleus will release electromagnetic radiation.

2) The electromagnetic radiation will have energy from the electronic motion as a
result of which the orbits will gradually shrink. Finally, the orbits will shrink and
collapse in the nucleus of an atom. According to the calculations, if Maxwell’s
explanation is followed Rutherford’s model will collapse with 10-8seconds. Therefore,
Rutherford atomic model was not following Maxwell’s theory and it was unable to
explain an atom’s stability.

3) Rutherford’s theory was incomplete because it did not mention anything about the
arrangement of electrons in the orbit. This was one of the major drawbacks of
Rutherford atomic model.
3. How Bohr Modify the Rutherford’s model?
Ans: - Rutherford described the atom as consisting of a tiny positive mass
surrounded by a cloud of negative electrons. Bohr thought that electrons orbited the
nucleus in quantised orbits.
Bohr built upon Rutherford's model of the atom. In Rutherford's model most of the
atom's mass is concentrated into the centre (what we now call the nucleus) and
electrons surround the positive mass in something like a cloud.
Bohr's most significant contribution was the quantisation of the model. He believed
that electrons moved around the nucleus in circular orbits with quantised potential
and kinetic energies. So, it was not possible for electrons to occupy just any energy
level.
In principle the quantisation aspect of the model is still believed to be correct. The
main problem lies in the idea of electrons in circular orbits. This does not satisfy the
Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which is that it is not possible to know the position
and momentum of a particle simultaneously.
4. What are the faults of Bohr’s Model.
Ans: - 1) Bohr treated electrons as particles where according to de Broglie's
hypothesis, having a very low mass, electron also exhibits wave nature.

2) Bohr's model was adequate only for nucleus having only one electron e.g.
Hydrogen, He+1, Li+2 etc. Bohr's model could not explain the spectra of multi-
electronic atoms.

3) Bohr's model was two-dimensional where an atom is three-dimensional.

4) Using a better spectrometer, the spectra showed very fine lines. Bohr's model could
not explain the origin of those fine lines. (Solved by Arthur Sommerfeld who imagined
electrons orbiting in different planes and having elliptical orbits.)

5) Bohr's model could not explain the effect electric field and magnetic field on
spectra. (Stark effect and Zeeman effect)

6) In Bohr's equation, the momentum and position of electron, revolving around the
nucleus were well defined. But, according, Heisenberg's Uncertainty principle, it is
impossible to measure the position and momentum of electrons precisely. If the
position is measure with maximum precision, there will be uncertainty in the value of
momentum and vice versa.

5. What are the significances of four quantum numbers.

Ans: - Quantum numbers are the numbers which define the location of electrons in
the orbitals around the nucleus of an atom. There are four quantum numbers, viz,

Principal quantum number (n): - It defines the main shell to which an electron
belongs. The values of n =1,2,3,4, ........

Azimuthal quantum number (l): - It tells us the number of subshells present in the
main shell and the orbital to which an electron belongs. Its value is equal to 0 to (n-1).

Magnetic quantum number (m): - It informs the level of degeneracy of the orbitals. Its
value is equal to -, 0, +.

Spin quantum number (s): - It tells us whether the electron in an orbital is spinning in
upward direction or downward direction. s has two values +1/2 for upward spin and
-1/2 for downward spin.

6. Explain Pauli’s Exclusion principle.

Ans: - The Pauli Exclusion Principle states that, in an atom or molecule, no two electrons
can have the same four electronic quantum numbers. As an orbital can contain a
maximum of only two electrons, the two electrons must have opposing spins. This
means if one is assigned an up-spin (+1/2), the other must be down-spin (-1/2).
7. What is Hund’s rule.

Ans: - Hund's rule states that:

1. Every orbital in a sublevel is singly occupied before any orbital is doubly

occupied.
2. All of the electrons in singly occupied orbitals have the same spin (to maximize
total spin).

8. Write a short note on Aufbau principle.

Ans: - The Aufbau principle, simply put, means electrons are added to orbitals as
protons are added to an atom. The term comes from the German word "Aufbau",
which means "built up" or "construction". Lower electron orbitals fill before higher
orbitals do, "building up" the electron shell. The end result is that the atom, ion, or
molecule forms the most stable electron configuration.

The Aufbau principle outlines the rules used to determine how electrons organize into
shells and subshells around the atomic nucleus.

 Electrons go into the subshell having the lowest possible energy.

 An orbital can hold at most 2 electrons obeying the Pauli exclusion principle.
  Electrons obey Hund's rule, which states that electrons spread out before they
pair up if there are two or more energetically equivalent orbitals (e.g., p, d).

9. What is continuous & discontinuous spectrum?

Ans: -
Continuous spectrum: -
a spectrum that contains or appears to contain all wavelengths but not spectrum line
s over a wide portion of its range.
The emission spectrum of incandescent solids is continuous; bremsstrahlung spectra
consisting of a large number of lines may appear continuous.
Discontinuous spectrum: - A discontinuous spectrum is defined as a spectrum
between a range of wavelengths, that contains breaks or gaps in terms of the
wavelengths included.

10. Show the increasing order of radius of 1st Bohr orbit for H, He+,
Li2+, Be3+ with explanation.
Ans: - Radius of Bohr's orbit in hydrogen and hydrogen like species can be calculated
by using the following formula.

Where
n = principal quantum number of orbit.
 Z = atomic number
So, the correct increasing order of radius of 1st Bohr orbit is
H < Be3+ < Li2+ < He+
11.Show the increasing order of Energy of 1st Bohr orbit for H, He+,
Li2+, Be3+. with explanation.
Ans: - The energy of an electron in Bohr’s orbit of hydrogen atom is given by the
expression:

Where
n = principal quantum number of orbit.
Z = atomic number
Since Z = 1 for hydrogen above equation can be further simplified to:
En = -13.6/n2 eV
So, the correct increasing order of energy of 1st Bohr orbit is
H < He + < Li2+ < Be3+

12. Which type of spectra we should get from atom and why?
Ans: - When atoms are excited, they emit light of certain wavelengths which
correspond to different colours. The emitted light can be observed as a series of
coloured lines with dark spaces in between; this series of coloured lines is called
a line or atomic spectra. Each element produces a unique set of spectral lines. Since
no two elements emit the same spectral lines, elements can be identified by their line
spectrum.

13. What is Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle?

Ans: -
 The uncertainty principle states that the position and velocity cannot both be
measured, exactly, at the same time (actually pairs of position, energy and
time)
 uncertainty principle derives from the measurement problem, the intimate
connection between the wave and particle nature of quantum objects
 the change in a velocity of a particle becomes more ill-defined as the wave
function is confined to a smaller region.