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Niels Bohr was one of the foremost scientists of advanced physic , good know for his substantial share to quantum theory and hisNobel Prize - gain research on the structure of speck .
Born in Copenhagen in 1885 to well - educated parent , Bohr became interested in physics at a unseasoned age . He studied the subject throughout his undergrad and graduate days and earn a doctor’s degree in physics in 1911 from Copenhagen University .
Left: Niels Bohr in 1922. Right: A 1963 Danish stamp honored Bohr on the 50th anniversary of his atomic theory.
While still a scholarly person , Bohr come through a competition put on by the Academy of Sciences in Copenhagen for his investigating into the measurements of liquid surface tension using vacillate fluid jets . Working in the laboratory of his father ( a illustrious physiologist ) , Bohr conducted several experiments and even made his own glass test tubes .
Bohr go above and beyond the current theory of fluid Earth’s surface tension by taking into account statement the viscosity of the water as well as incorporating finite amplitudes rather than infinitesimal one . He submitted his essay at the last minute , deliver the goods first place and a gold medal . He improve upon these ideas and sent them to the Royal Society in London , who publish them in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1908 , according toNobelprize.org .
His subsequent body of work became increasingly theoretic . It was while take inquiry for his doctorial dissertation on the electron theory of metal that Bohr first add up across Max Planck ’s early quantum hypothesis , which draw energy as tiny mote , or quanta .
A stylized representation of a lithium atom illustrates Niels Bohr’s atomic model, that an atom is a small, positively charged nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons.
In 1912 , Bohr was working for the Nobel laureate J.J. Thompson in England when he was infix to Ernest Rutherford , whose discovery of the nucleus and development of an nuclear manakin had earn him a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1908 . Under Rutherford ’s charge , Bohr began studying the property of atoms .
Bohr held a lectureship in physics at Copenhagen University from 1913 to 1914 and run on to carry a similar position at Victoria University in Manchester from 1914 to 1916 . He last back to Copenhagen University in 1916 to become a professor of theoretical physical science . In 1920 , he was appointed the oral sex of the Institute for Theoretical Physics .
Combining Rutherford ’s description of the nucleus and Planck ’s theory about quanta , Bohr explained what happens inside an particle and developed a motion picture of atomic structure . This study earned him a Nobel Prize of his own in 1922 .
In the same year that he began his studies with Rutherford , Bohr conjoin the erotic love of his life , Margaret Nørlund , with whom he had six sons . by and by in life , he became president of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences , as well as a extremity of scientific academy all over the universe .
When the Nazis invaded Denmark in World War II , Bohr contend to break loose to Sweden . He spent the last two years of the war in England and the United States , where he got involved with the Atomic Energy Project . It was important to him , however , to use his attainment for dependable and not furiousness . He commit his work toward the peaceable use of nuclear physics and toward solving political problems lift from the development of atomic weapons of destruction . He believed that nations should be all open with one another and wrote down these position in his Open Letter to the United Nations in 1950 .
Atomic model
Bohr ’s great contribution to modern natural philosophy was the atomic model . The Bohr model shows the particle as a small , positively charge nucleus surrounded by orb electrons .
Bohr was the first to discover thatelectrons travel in freestanding orbitsaround the nucleus and that the number of electrons in the outer orbit determines the properties of an element .
The chemic ingredient bohrium ( Bh ) , No . 107 on theperiodic table of elements , is named for him .
Liquid droplet theory
Bohr ’s theoretical work contributed significantly to scientists ' understanding ofnuclear fission . According to his smooth droplet possibility , a liquid drop provides an accurate representation of an mote ’s nucleus .
This theory was implemental in the first attempts to split uranium atoms in the thirties , an important stone’s throw in the development of the atomic bomb .
Despite his contributions to the U.S. Atomic Energy Project during World War II , Bohr was an frank advocate for the peaceful practical app of atomic physic .
Quantum theory
Bohr ’s concept of complementarity , which he spell about in a number of essays between 1933 and 1962 , state that an electron can be viewed in two ways , either as a particle or as a wave , but never both at the same fourth dimension .
This conception , which forms the basis of other quantum theory , also explains that regardless of how one views an negatron , all understanding of its properties must be rooted in empiric measurement . Bohr ’s hypothesis stresses the point that an experiment ’s results are profoundly sham by the measurement peter used to carry them out .
Bohr ’s contributions to the study ofquantum mechanicsare forever immortalize at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Copenhagen University , which he helped discover in 1920 and headed until his decease in 1962 . It has since been rename theNiels Bohr Institutein his honor .
Niels Bohr quotations
" Every outstanding and deep difficulty bears in itself its own answer . It storm us to interchange our thinking so as to find it . "
" Everything we call real is made of thing that can not be regarded as literal . "
" The best weapon of a despotism is secrecy , but the best weapon of a republic should be the weapon of openness . "
" Never express yourself more understandably than you are able to cogitate . "
Additional reportage by Traci Pedersen , Live Science contributor
