Bohr proposed a “planetary” model of the structure of an atom, with a tiny yet massive nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons. In Bohr’s model, the electrons were restricted to a particular set of allowed orbits. Electrons could never be between Bohr’s allowed orbits, but they could “jump” from one orbit to another. Each orbit corresponded to a different energy, and, as the electrons jumped, they would emit or absorb light equal to the change in their energy, producing the spectrum seen in the lab. These discontinuous jumps of certain energies were known as quanta, from the Latin for “how
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The light or spectrum emitted from the jump between orbits, quanta
