Assignment 1
Assignment 1
Assignment 1
o If a given body exerts a force on a second body, the second body will exert in
the same time a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first
body.
o Newton’s second law can be summarized as: for each action there is a
reaction.
o Newton’s second law is also known as the principle of action and reaction.
o According to classical theory electrons revolving around the orbit in circular or elliptic
path are accelerating.
o The accelerating electrons must emit the radiation and loose energy that means,
according to classical mechanics, atoms should be unstable which contradicts the
long-observed stability of atoms.
o Concept of quantization of atomic orbit solves this problem.
2. The energy spectrum of atoms and molecules
3. Compton’s effect
4. Photoelectric effect
o There were other experimental results that could not be explained by classical
physics and needed the development of new theoretical concepts.
o For example, the inability of classical models to reproduce the blackbody emission
curve, the photoelectric effect, and the observation of spectral “lines” in the emission
(or absorption) spectra of atomic hydrogen.
o These experimental results dated back to the first decade of the twentieth century
and caused a nearly explosive reaction by theoretical physicists in the 1920s that led
to the formulation of quantum mechanics.
o The names of these physicists are Planck, Heisenberg, Einstein, Bohr, Born, de
Broglie, Dirac, Pauli, Schrödinger have become indelibly linked to new theoretical
models that revolutionized physics and chemistry.
1905 (Einstein):
Photoelectric effect:
o Photoelectric effect, by which a polished metal surface emits electrons when
illuminated by visible and ultra-violet light, was discovered by Heinrich Hertz in 1887.
The following facts regarding this effect can be established via careful observation.
a) A given surface only emits electrons when the frequency of the light with which it is
illuminated exceeds a certain threshold value, which is a property of the metal.
b) The current of photoelectrons, when it exists, is proportional to the intensity of the
light falling on the surface.
c) The energy of the photoelectrons is independent of the light intensity, but varies
linearly with the light frequency. These facts are inexplicable within the framework of
classical physics.
In 1905, Albert Einstein proposed a radical new theory of light in order to account for
the photoelectric effect. According to this theory, light of fixed frequency ν consists of
a
collection of indivisible discrete packages, called quanta,
1 whose energy is
E = h ν.
Albert Einstein stated that the quantization was in fact inherent to the light, and that
the lumps can be interpreted as particles, which we now call “photons.”
This proposal was a result of his work on the photoelectric effect, which deals with
the absorption of light and the emission of elections from a material.
This result relates the momentum of a photon to the wavenumber of the wave it is
associated with.
1913 (Bohr):
Wave nature of electron:
o Niels Bohr stated that electrons in atoms have wavelike properties.
o This correctly explained a few things about hydrogen, in particular the quantized
energy levels that were known.
o Electron diffraction refers to the wave nature of electrons. However, from a technical
or practical point of view, it may be regarded as a technique used to study matter by
firing electrons at a sample and observing the resulting interference pattern.
1925 (Heisenberg):
Matrix mechanics:
o Werner Heisenberg formulated a version of quantum mechanics that made use of
matrix mechanics.
o It was the first conceptually autonomous and logically consistent formulation of
quantum mechanics. Its account of quantum jumps supplanted the Bohr model's
electron orbits.
o It did so by interpreting the physical properties of particles as matrices that evolve in
time.
1926 (Schrodinger):
o Erwin Schrodinger formulated a version of quantum mechanics that was based on
waves.
o He wrote down a wave equation (the so-called Schrodinger equation) that governs
how the waves evolve in space and time.
o Initially Schrodinger thought (incorrectly) that the wave represented the charge
density.
1926 (Born):
o Max Born correctly interpreted Schrodinger’s wave as a probability amplitude.
o By “amplitude” we mean that the wave must be squared to obtain the desired
probability.
1926 (Dirac):
o Paul Dirac showed that Heisenberg’s and Schrodinger’s versions of quantum
mechanics were equivalent, in that they could both be derived from a more general
version of quantum mechanics.