Bohr Radius: A Layman’s Point Of View

Like many scientists a Danish scientist or specifically a physicist by name Niels Bohr worked hard on the structure of the atom. After hard work of years he could deduce a model of the atom. According to him the atom consisted of a core or the nucleus as it is called today. It consisted of neutrons and protons.

The neutrons had no electric charge and the protons were positive in charge. This central nucleus was surrounded by some orbits with different energy levels and the electrons revolved around this nucleus in these orbits. These were negatively charged. Thus the whole atom stayed neutral in charge as the number of protons and electrons is the same.

According to him the distance of the orbit that the electrons revolve depends on their energy. Hydrogen is the smallest atom having one proton and one neutron in its nucleus and has one electron revolving around it. This orbit in which it is revolving is the smallest ever possible orbit and thus the level of energy it possesses is the least so you can say that it is the orbit of the lowest energy is the probable position of the electron according to the theory postulated by Bohr at that time and came to be known as the Bohr radius in honor of his dedicated work in this field.

This theory got the recognition nearly a century ago and the group of scientists regarded this as the base of their further research work in finding about the atom and its components. This Bohr radius stipulated at that time and was taken as the base for many scientific calculations as the radius of the substances. The actual value of it is thought to be 0.53 angstroms and is one of the fundamental constants that the scientists have adopted.

Later it was found that the Bohr model as accepted by this famous physicist does not explain the reduction in mass that is many a time actually observed to happen. Moreover the Bohr model of the atom could not describe what an atom was correctly whereas according to quantum mechanics the Bohr radius can be taken as the size of the electron cloud. In atomic physics it finds its use as a unit.

The definition given to Bohr radius does not take into consideration the effect of reduced mass. So it is not exactly the orbital radius of the hydrogen atom electron. Research in the field of science never ceased and with constant work this has been modified and it can be calculated by using other data of the atom like the Planck’s constant, speed of light in vacuum, electron rest mass, etc. The formula thus deduced helps us to find the Bohr radius of the atom.

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