Day 18: Modern Physics

© Abdullah Al Sakib
 What is Modern Physics?
Modern physics is a branch of physics that deals with the
post-Newtonian concepts in the world of physics. It is based
on the two major breakthroughs of the twentieth century:
Relativity and Quantum Mechanics.
Quantum effects typically involve distances related to atoms.
On the other hand, relativistic effects typically involve
velocities compared to the speed of light.

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 Who Is the Father of Modern Physics?
Albert Einstein is known as the father of modern physics. He
was a 20th-century scientist, who came up with the most
important ideas. One of the important works of Albert Einstein
is the theory of relativity and the famous equation E=mc2.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921 for his
achievements in theoretical physics, particularly discovering
the laws of photoelectric effect.

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 PART ONE:
Atomic Model

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 Introduction
The word atom has originated from the Greek word atomos. Atomos
means integral i.e., indivisible. Scientist Dalton was the initiator of
integral idea of atoms. During the nineteenth century this idea was
flourished; but after the discovery of fundamental particles like electron,
proton, neutron this idea was abandoned. These fundamental particles
form all the elements of atoms. At normal condition an atom is
electrically neutral. From this, it can be concluded that equal amount of
positive and negative charges exist in an atom.
In 1911, scientist Lord Rutherford achieved the fame and credit of
discovery of nucleus and in this matter scientists Geiger and Marsden
actively helped him. Besides, after the discovery of proton in 1919 and
neutron in 1932 a clear idea about the structure of atom was obtained.

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 Evolution of Structure of Atom
From ancient times different philosophers gave different hypothesis
about the structure of matter. First a Greek philosopher named
Democritus gave a theory for the structure of matter. According to him
matter was composed of tiny solid integral particles called atoms. In
Greek language this is called atomos. Atoms in a solid remain in motion
and due to their combination and interaction matters are formed.
Needless to say, it had no experimental proof.
Robert Boyle first gave an idea about the fundamental materials or
elements. He said that those elements, which even after divisions into
very tiny parts, do not lose their properties or no new property is created
in them, are called fundamental elements.

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 Evolution of Structure of Atom (2)
Later on, scientist Dalton proposed three postulates about the structure
of matter which are as follows-
(1) Matters are composed of indivisible tiny particles which are called
atoms.
(2) Atoms of the same matter is identical. But atoms of different matters
are different.
(3) These atoms take part in chemical reaction. Due to the combination
of two or more atoms new matters are created. These are called
compounds. For example- H2O

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 Evolution of Structure of Atom (3)
At the end of the nineteenth century in 1897 scientist J. J. Thomson discovered electron.
After the discovery of electron he gave a new idea about the structure of atom.
According to him atom is a positively charged sphere and electrons are distributed all
over the sphere. An atom is electrically neutral. So, if electron or negatively charged
particle is present in any atom then equal amount of positive charge should be present
in it.
In an atom how many positive and negative charges will be present and how they will
be distributed and other than positive and negative charges whether other particles
will exist in atom or not etc. in order to know all these things different structure and
picture of atom have been presented. These are known as atom model.

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 Atomic Models
Thompson, Rutherford and Bohr Models will be discussed.

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 Thompson Atomic Models
Thomson proposed that the shape of an atom resembles
that of a sphere having a radius of the order of 10-10 m.
The positively charged particles are uniformly distributed
with electrons arranged in such a manner that the atom
is electrostatically stable. Thomson’s atomic model was
also called the plum pudding model or the watermelon
model. The embedded electrons resembled the seed of a
watermelon while the watermelon’s red mass
represented the positive charge distribution. The plum
pudding atomic theory assumed that the mass of an
atom is uniformly distributed all over the atom.

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 Thompson Atomic Models
Limitations
Thomson’s atomic model explained the overall neutrality of an atom. Its
assumption that the total mass of an atom is uniformly distributed all over
the atom was inconsistent with some experimental results. Rutherford’s
gold foil experiment of scattering α-particles revealed that most of the
space in an atom is empty, contradicting Thomson’s atomic model. Thus, it
was found that the plum pudding atomic model was insufficient to explain
the structure of an atom.

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 Rutherford Atomic Models
Ernest Rutherford, a British scientist conducted an
experiment and based on the observations of this
experiment, he explained the atomic structure of elements
and proposed Rutherford’s Atomic Model.
In this experiment, Rutherford made fast moving alpha
particles to fall on a gold foil .
He observed that:
• Many of fast moving alpha particles pass straight
through the gold foil with no deflection at all
• Some of the alpha particles were deflected by foil at
small angles.
• Very less alpha particles(1 out of every 20000) were
reflected back at 180 degree (rebound)

*Why used Gold foil?

*How the Turned back measured?
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 Rutherford's alpha particles scattering experiment - YouTube

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 Rutherford Atomic Models (2)
Rutherford’s observations from his experiment:
1. Most of spaces inside atom was empty
This is because most of the fast moving alpha particles pass straight through
the gold foil.
2. Positive charge of atom occupies very little space
This is because only some of the alpha particles were deflected by the foil at
small angles.
3. All mass of atom and positive charged was concentrated in very small
volume of atom called Nucleus
This is because very less alpha particles were reflected back at 180 degree
(rebound).

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 Rutherford Atomic Models (3)
Limitations:
Rutherford suggested that:
• Electrons revolve around the nucleus in a circular path.
• This is not possible because, if a particle follows a circular orbit, it will undergo acceleration
(due to change in velocity as a result of continuous change in direction in a circular path).
• During acceleration, charged particles radiate and lose energy.
• After losing all energy, the charged electron will ultimately fall into the nucleus.
• This would make the atom very unstable.
• But we know that atoms are actually stable.
• Hence, there was a flaw in Rutherford's model of an atom.

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 Bohr’s Atomic Model
Bohr theory modified the atomic structure model by explaining
that electrons move in fixed orbitals (shells) and not anywhere
in between and he also explained that each orbit (shell) has a
fixed energy. Rutherford explained the nucleus of an atom and
Bohr modified that model into electrons and their energy
levels.

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 Bohr’s Atomic Model Postulates
1) Bohr proposed that in an atom electron is revolving around the
nucleus in a definite circular path called orbits or shells.
2) These orbits are called ‘stationary orbits’ and each orbit or shell
possesses fixed energy. The energy levels are represented by an
integer (n=1, 2, 3…) known as the quantum number. This range of
quantum number starts from nucleus side with n=1 having the
lowest energy level. The orbits n=1, 2, 3, 4… are assigned as K, L, M,
N…. shells and when an electron attains the lowest energy level, it is
said to be in the ground state.

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 Bohr’s Atomic Model Postulates
3) Electrons can only gain and lose energy by jumping
from one allowed orbit to another, absorbing or
emitting electromagnetic radiation with a frequency ν
determined by the energy difference of the levels
according to the Planck relation:

Where h is Planck's constant. The frequency of the

radiation emitted at an orbit of period T is as it would
be in classical mechanics; it is the reciprocal of the
classical orbit period:

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