Circular-orbit derivation of the Bohr model Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Consider a single electron of mass and a point atomic nucleus of mass and positive electric charge , with the elementary charge. Use nonrelativistic classical mechanics, omit external fields and interactions with other electrons, and writeHere is the Coulomb two-body reduced mass, the vacuum permittivity, and the Planck constant. The separation and relative speed describe the two-particle relative coordinate; neither body is silently pinned in place. The electron's own radius about the centre of mass is .
For the assumed circular orbit, Coulomb's law provides the required centripetal acceleration, and the imposed orbital angular momentum condition isSubstitute into the first equation and cancel to obtainThe kinetic energy is and the Coulomb potential energy is , with zero energy at infinite separation. HenceThis derives the energy sequence from the stated circular model; the modern Schrödinger equation derivation is the distinct series-termination quantization of the Coulomb radial equation. The radius above scales as , whereas the binding energy scales as . The Bohr radius article supplies the corresponding Coulomb potential length scale. The nonrelativistic assumption requires , with the speed of light.
For an original numerical example choose , , , , , , and . Treat these as stipulated constants for the calculation. They give , , and , where denotes an electronvolt. At , and ; the ground-state ionization energy is .
Taking gives . A finite nuclear mass reduces every binding energy by and increases each separation by . This follows from relative motion, not a fitted correction to individual spectral lines. Replacing the atomic nucleus by a heavier isotope changes the same factor, providing another check of the model.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 ib Paper 1 14A i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The anti-muon has the same charge as a proton, so the Coulomb potential seen by the electron is the same as in the hydrogen atom. The main difference is the source mass. Separating the centre-of-mass motion replaces by the Coulomb two-body reduced massSince , this is close to , though less close than the electron-proton reduced mass. The smaller reduced mass gives a slightly larger Bohr radius and energies of slightly smaller magnitude. Under the assumptions in the question, the Coulomb form, angular eigenfunctions and quantum numbers are otherwise unchanged; anti-muon decay and spin effects are being neglected.