Name: Ching Kai Xiang (5) Class: 2I1

Online Lesson Task 2 ---Niels Bohr

Niels Henrik David Bohr was born on 7th October 1885 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
His father, Christian Bohr, was a professor of physiology in the University of
Copenhagen and gave rise to the name of the “Bohr Effect/Shift”. Bohr died in
Copenhagen in 1962 due to heart failure.

In 1903, Bohr enrolled at Copenhagon University, studying philosophy and

mathematics. Following that, in 1905, Bohr conducted a series of science
experiments to find out about the properties of surface tension. This essay won him
a prize, thus caused him to abandon philosophy for physics. In 1911, he received his
doctorate and in 1916, he became a professor of the University of Copenhagon. In
1921, with the assistance of the Danish Government and the Carlsberg Foundation,
he founded the Institute of Theoretical Physics and in 1922, he was awarded the
Nobel Prize in physics for his contributions in the structure of atoms. Bohr also took
part in the Manhattan Project, which created two atomic bombs that would later be
dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Niels Bohr discovered the Bohr Model of the atom, whereby electrons travel in
discrete orbits around the atom’s nucleus. He also discovered the Shell Model of the
atom, whereby the chemical properties of an element are determined by the
electrons in the outermost orbit.

Bohr conducted experiments in 1911 in J.J. Thomson and in 1912 joined Ernest
Rutherford at Manchester University and adapted Rutherford’s nuclear structure to
Max Planck’s quantum theory and published his result, his model of the atomic
structure in 1913. It introduced the theory of electrons travelling in orbits around an
atom’s nucleus, thus the chemical properties of the element is being largely
determined by the number of electrons in the outer orbits of the atom.

The discovery of Niels Bohr about the orbits of electrons around an atom is very
important in today’s study of the structure of an atom. The orbits of the electrons are
caused by electrons attracted by electromagnetic force, which binds them around the
nucleon of the atom. This also causes the neutralisation of positive and negative ions
in an atom and thus making it neutral. By understanding how the electrons are
attracted to the nucleon, we can better understand the structure of the atom and also
reason the neutralisation of ions in an atom.