The image of electrons going around the nucleus...

You all know the image. It shows one or more electrons in spherical
orbits around the nucleus. The Rutherford atom. When did this image
first appear? I know it's all wrong, but it seems like there wasn't
that wide of a window in time between electrons were discovered and
the time quantum mechanics came into being.

Just curious.

John

[Only registered users see links. ] (John Spevacek) wrote:


I don't think that the "orbiting electron" image was originally formulated
by Rutherford. Based on his experiments, he postulated the existence
of the nucleus (charge concentration) with the electrons being located
outside of he nucleus. As far as I know, Rutherford did not comment
in his written work on the specific arrangement of the electrons, i.e.
orbits.

The orbiting electron model was formulated by Bohr in 1913, shortly
after joining the Rutherford lab. Hence Rutherford's name is often
associated with that model together with Bohr's name.

The QM model started with de Broglie's thesis in 1923 and was soon
worked on by Schrödinger and Debye. The wave equation was formulated
in very early 1927.

The orbiting electron image was used much longer as a logo by
corporations, presumable to project a dynamic and hi-tech image.
And of course it does make a much better company logo than the fuzzy
orbital image ;-)

Roger

in article [Only registered users see links. ], John Spevacek at
[Only registered users see links. ] wrote on 11/11/03 1:05 PM:

Other responders have given some of the history. I will just add a bit.

The electron was discovered by Thomson in 1897. He found that particles in
cathode rays had a constant ratio of charge to mass. Early in the 20th
century, G N Lewis tried to apply electrons to chemistry. He did not get
things correct until almost 1920. Millikan determined the electronic charge
in 1909.

Bill